Mark and Maddy
by ayziks
Summary: Terra Nova characters Maddy Shannon and Mark Reynolds fall in love, and they get married 3 years from the end of the show, while preparing defenses to possible retaliation from Lucas and 2149. This story continues with Josh and Skye marrying, Mark and Maddy having a baby 2 years later, in a new adventure faced with threats from the Badlands. All characters property of Fox
1. Chapter 1

They were both kissing passionately alone together in "their" tree - theirs since spending a night together stranded in that tree by the danger of the slasher roaming the forest floor, and discovering their true feelings for each other. Those growing emotions thrilled them both. His hand drifted gently from the softness under her shirt to between her legs.

But after a few moments of elation between them, she moved his hand away and whispered, "Mark...no..."

Mark stopped, sat straight up, blushed, and apologized, "I'm sorry Maddy, I shouldn't have."

"It's all right. There is a part of me that _wants _to."

Mark smirked and half laughed, "I _like _that part."

She grinned and punched him in the shoulder playfully.

But then he frowned and admitted, "But I shouldn't be doing any of that stuff."

"It's OK. What you were doing _before _felt really good. We kinda already crossed that bridge. I don't mind."

"Yeah..." he smiled with that satisfaction that some of her secrets were his too.

Then she hugged him and cooed, "I love you."

With a gleam in his eye, Mark said, "'Love you too. Maddy, we need to do something about this. We've been together three years."

"What do you mean, Mark?" asked Maddy, with very piqued interest.

"Something old-fashioned."

"Turns out I'm an old-fashioned girl, Mark."

A smile formed on her face.

"I'll never forget the day you first told me."

"Yeah. Me too."

Mark shifted in the tree, and pulled a wadded up ball of paper from his pocket.

"Fancy wrapping there, Mark...," she giggled and started to wonder what he had in mind.

He unwrapped two beautiful gold rings, one with a gemstone, and held them before her. Both had ornate Hindi designs, a knowing tribute to her and her mother's heritage.

Her eyes flew wide open and she listened intently. _"Where had Mark gotten Indian rings?"_she thought.

He was nervous but sincere, "Maddy. I...umm...well, you know we love each other. Terra Nova is our home _forever_. I was wondering if you might want to spend forever with _me_? Maddy Shannon - will you be my wife?"

She wrapped her arms around him strongly enough to almost knock both out of the tree and exclaimed, "Oh yes, Mark, _yes!_"

He slipped the gemstone ring gently around Maddy's finger – in the tradition of the Hindi Sagai engagement ceremony - and kissed her gently.

"You know what to do with the other one, right? That is, assuming you _want _to give me a ring." he smiled.

Maddy took the other ring and put it on Mark's outstretched hand and said, "Of course, silly. I love the two ring engagement tradition of Sagai. How thoughtful of you to honor my culture, Mark."

Maddy's mother Elisabeth would know _exactly_what this meant the instant she saw them with the Sagai rings.

"We have to tell your parents. In fact, I have to ask your dad."

"Isn't that a little too old fashioned, Mark? What if he says no?"

"I'll be convincing."

"I'm sure you will!"

They giggled and embraced again.

In the background, there was a roar that hushed the forest noises.

Mark spun around and cocked his sonic weapon, "We're not alone. Carnitor...about a 'klick' away. We need to keep moving."

Maddy rebuttoned her blouse, pecked Mark on the cheek, and they climbed down the tree into the relative safety of their vehicle to continue the patrol. He was late on his rounds, but Maddy would explain by saying that she had found a particularly interesting biological specimen to examine in detail. That would technically be true, even though the specimen was Mark. Her mother Elisabeth would know better and roll her eyes. Father Jim would trust his little girl at her word as always.


	2. Chapter 2

In the uneasy peace that came with destruction of the time portal from the Year 2149 to Terra Nova by Chief of Police Jim Shannon - Maddy's father - three years before, some things were a bit more relaxed at the colony. Having civilian student and scientist-in-training Maddy accompany now-Sergeant Mark Reynolds on his patrols was one of them.

Jim and Terra Nova Commander Nathaniel Taylor both had scowled and objected, but Maddy manipulated her father as she always did - even easier than her mom always had - to convince him armed, escorted forays into the forest for scientific samples was logical. In fact it was. It made the best use of the soldiers and scientists in the new isolated world of Terra Nova. More and more they had to become self sufficient and to develop technology from the local vegetation and animals as their high tech stocks ran out, perhaps permanently.

Attacks from the Terra Nova rebels called the "Sixers" were non-existent, with all of them having fled to the Badlands with the Phoenix Group mercenaries. Many colonists thought they went to establish their own claim to this world, now that they were cut off from 2149 – technically now the Year 2152. Taylor and Jim remained skeptical, but there wasn't a compelling reason to investigate the Badlands and provoke more fighting.

There was still the ever-present worry of 2149 breaking through the time barrier again, by building a new time travel machine to replace the one Jim had destroyed, and then bringing a terrible revenge on Terra Nova. To defend against that ever present threat, a new defense was being built.

It had all been the brainchild of Terra Nova Chief Science Officer Dr. Malcolm Wallace, aided by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elisabeth Shannon, and by Maddy Shannon – who discovered she was truly gifted in temporal physics and mathematics.

Together with the rest of the scientific team, they developed a "Time Jammer" – as Commander Taylor described it - a device that would produce a temporal distortion energy field around Terra Nova.

Theoretically, the Time Jammer would disrupt any time transport from the future, preventing another surprise attack on Terra Nova from Year 2149 within that temporal energy shield. To the great relief of Taylor and Jim, the protective effect would extend over 100 kilometers in all directions from Terra Nova. Should Taylor's traitorous son Lucas and his evil cohorts from the Year 2149 attempt another surprise invasion like they did three years ago, they would materialize more than two days travel away from Terra Nova, which was ample time for Terra Nova forces to prepare to defend the colony. In the last attack, the Phoenix Group had materialized only 3 kilometers away, and overwhelmed the colony quickly.

It was nearly operational. It was an odd looking device, sprouting antennae everywhere.

Dr. Wallace asked Elisabeth one more time, "You're sure this time distortion device won't affect our health?"

"I am certain. All the medical tests show that it works fine."

Commander Taylor and Jim stood nearby as Dr. Wallace and Elisabeth made the final preparations. Taking a deep breath, Dr. Wallace turned it on.

A visibly shimmering wave emanated from the device, and radiated outward swiftly. As it passed through Elisabeth, she became instantly dizzy. So did everyone else. The feeling passed quickly, though.

"I wasn't expecting that. Is everyone OK?" asked Elisabeth.

A litany of "I'm fine" answers echoed back.

"It must have been a time propagation effect similar when we went through the portal to come here originally. After all, it is a variation of the same effect – we all got nauseous coming through the portal," explained Malcolm.

They quickly went outside of the laboratory, watching the distortion wave cover the colony and surrounding land around Terra Nova.

Commander Taylor had a slight scowl as he watch the time distortion effect spread. Elisabeth saw that and asked, "So what do you think?"

Taylor gruffly stated, "I am praying it will work and not kill us all as it takes effect."

The Time Jammer had a side benefit of detecting and pinpointing any time travel action anywhere on the planet – an early warning system. Taylor was particularly happy with that feature.

The other side benefit of the time distortion field - which extended vertically as well as outwardly - was that anything short of an orbital bombardment of the colony would be thwarted. No attack aircraft or bombs could materialize directly overhead of the colony.

Being further prepared, Taylor and his military team had salvaged and built up the colony's defenses from the Phoenix Group's armored fighting vehicles and cannons that the Terra Novans had damaged or sabotaged during the days of the Phoenix Group's invasion and occupation of Terra Nova.

They almost felt safe again, and now were much better prepared to defend against any assault force from 2149. A three year lull was even more reassuring.

Aside from many reports across the colony of the initial disorientation from the wave of temporal energy that passed through them all, there were no lingering effects. Everyone could celebrate.


	3. Chapter 3

When Jim and Elisabeth got home mid afternoon, Maddy and Mark were sitting in the kitchen enjoying some fresh fruit, having returned from the "patrol" together. Jim noted that Mark and Maddy were hardly ever separated. Knowing full well the kind of steamy relationship Elisabeth and Jim had in their early years, Jim always worried about his "little girl". Despite all the promises and known good behavior of this young couple, he didn't want any "surprises". Hormones still raged in young men and women that age, even with the best of intentions. Still, Reynolds was an honorable young man, motivated, a respected leader, and a fine soldier. That he had risen in the ranks quickly was really no surprise. He was gentle and kind with Maddy, and was totally devoted to her.

Before Jim could even greet his oldest daughter and her boy friend, Mark stood up and asked, "Mr. Shannon, may I speak with you?"

"Why...um...sure, Reynolds," puzzled Jim. He always called him Reynolds.

They stepped into the living room, but they were close enough that Elisabeth and Maddy could overhear them from the kitchen. Elisabeth held her daughter close. She had seen the rings already, and knew what was coming. Jim did the same thing with her father 25 years ago.

"I've known your daughter three years now."

Jim was interrupted by a page. "Just a minute, Reynolds, I have to take this call from Taylor."

Maddy stomped and rolled her eyes. Elisabeth calmed her.

Given the unusually serious tone of Reynolds' voice and the mention of Maddy and the young soldier in the same sentence, he only half-listened to Taylor. It was something about investigating someone claiming someone else stole something somewhere.

Finally he interrupted, "I'll have to call you back Taylor."

He turned to Reynolds and gave him a serious look, "All right, where were we?"

"We were talking about Maddy and me."

Reynolds was never comfortable around Jim, even though Jim liked this young man. Seeing Reynolds' sweat and discomfort more than usual, Jim could anticipate the conversation, and decided to make Reynolds work for this.

"What about Maddy?" he asked.

"Well, sir, we kind of have a special relationship."

"Yes, Dr. Shannon and I have noticed the two of you spend a lot of time together. That relationship _better_be one of great respect, Reynolds."

Reynolds turned beet red as he stammered, "Of _course_, sir!"

Behind the men, Maddy fidgeted. Elisabeth could feel her shaking.

"Well, then, Reynolds, what do you want to discuss?"

"Well, sir, years ago I sought permission to court your daughter."

"I remember, Reynolds. So far, it seems to have been a good decision to let you do that."

Elisabeth gave Jim a nasty look, but Jim just winked at her.

Unphased by Jim's needling remarks, Reynolds kept his calm, but Maddy wrung her hands fitfully.

Reynolds sighed deeply, and stated, "Mr Shannon, I seek your blessing to marry Maddy."

Despite knowing what Reynolds would ask, it still floored Jim. Elisabeth held her breath. Maddy chewed on her lip.

"Reynolds, you're a soldier. Soldiers' lives are tough and hard and fraught with danger. Even without 2149 interfering with us right now."

"With all due respect Mr. Shannon, you are the Chief of Police. There is plenty of daily danger to your life, sir, every time you investigate an incident. Maybe more danger than for us soldiers, Mr. Shannon. You investigate problems every day, sometimes more than once a day. And yet you are married and raised a family."

Jim was surprised, but Reynolds was absolutely right.

Elisabeth choked back a laugh. Maddy gave her mother a scowl.

Unhappy that he just lost the offensive in this conversation, Jim decided to yank this remarkable young man's chain harder.

"What if I say 'no'?"

Maddy couldn't contain herself and blurted, "Daddy! We're old enough to make our own decisions with or _without_your permission!"

He held his hand up to stop her, and Elisabeth shushed her too. Reynolds gave Maddy a quieting look.

Jim couldn't help but smile, hearing the same objections from Maddy as Elisabeth had said years ago, when her father more emphatically challenged Jim's request for marriage, simply because he didn't have the same "heritage" as Elisabeth.

"Well sir, if you say no, I would hope you would see the merit of us being together and eventually give your blessing."

"You're determined Reynolds, I will say that. As a matter of fact, young man, I think you have _all_the qualities that as parents we'd like to see in a husband for our Maddy."

"So yes, Reynolds, I give you my _blessing_for your marriage."

The women shrieked and hugged, and Reynolds shook Jim's hand emphatically. As a soldier in top physical shape – trained by Taylor himself - Reynolds nearly crushed Jim's hand.

"Oh, and soldier..."

"Yes sir?"

"Call me 'Jim' from now on, not 'Mr. Shannon'. But I'm not ready for 'Dad' yet," quipped Jim with a broad smile. He put his arm around Mark's shoulder. For the first time, it felt good to do that.

He motioned for Maddy to come over. She hugged her father, jumped up and down ecstatically, and then squeezed Mark hard.

Elisabeth came over, hugged Jim, and whispered, "Remember when?"

Reynolds was visibly relieved as he said, "And please, sir – I mean Jim - call me Mark."

"Of course, Mark."

They all laughed and didn't stop chatting while Elisabeth cooked a celebration dinner. Nine year old sister Zoe hugged Maddy mightily about the news when she arrived home from school.

Maddy's older brother Josh was surprised, and even a bit indignant, when he came home late from work after a visit with his girl friend Skye at her home, "Hey - I'm the oldest. I should be getting married first!"

Maddy teased, "Well, if you finally figure out what you and Skye mean to each other before the ceremony, you are welcome to go first!

Josh blushed, but then hugged his sister. _"Yes things were proceeding very nicely with Skye, but no need to rush it,"_ he thought.

...

Eighty five million years into the future in 2152, all was not so joyous.

In the midst of a putrefying greenish brown placid sea stood a dozen huge platforms arranged in a two-mile radius of ocean, all oriented toward the center. While the platforms looked like state of the art oil exploration rigs, the electron beam drill heads were oriented sideways and pointed at the center of the multi square mile circle center.

A dark-uniformed man sat in a computer media-strewn office, including piles of old-fashioned paper. Transparent touch screen displays glowed around him ominously and were covered in diagrams and equations. Three dimensional holograms hung suspended in mid-air. Spent coffee cups and food boxes littered the desks. The man sat with his head in his hands. His colleagues were on a dinner break.

The trans-temporal radio crackled, "Badlands here, Dwyer. How's the progress?"

"Slow," muttered Dwyer.

"You have to speed things up. Our friends are getting very impatient."

"I know. But you can't enhance natural processes easily. Mother Nature is in fact a bear."

The man on the other end of the radio grew impatient, "You know what happens when our benefactors get impatient. We're lucky to be alive after three years ago. On both ends. My shoulder has never healed right."

"You think you are lucky? I was inside the blast radius of that pyrosonics bomb blast Shannon set. I can't help what happened in Hope Plaza any more than you can. We are doing the best we can scraping it all together. You can't lie about something like this very well. Oil/water energy conversion is like cold fusion was centuries ago. Nonsense."

"Excuses mean nothing to our associates. What can you give me now?"

"Well I think I can give you a small transport in a few weeks to test it. You know explosives and volatiles don't transport well. Transporting the 'object' is only theoretically possible."

"That's my problem, since I am on the receiving end of that. Can the 'object' be delivered in the transport, in case the 'main event' doesn't get through?"

"I think so."

"You need to _know_ so, Dwyer. Tell me when you are ready."

Dwyer sighed knowing how many sleepless nights were ahead to do what his leader asked, then keyed the microphone, "Yes, Lucas."

"Badlands out," Lucas said flatly and turned to his colleagues.

"Well?" said the Commander of the Phoenix Group and Mira, the leader of the Sixers, simultaneously.

"I think we only have to endure the Badlands another month."

A beautiful but hard looking black-American woman sneered, "Good, Lucas. I hate this place. What's one more month, and when we win, I want to leave Taylor's body out here in the open to rot like we have for the past three years."

Lucas got an evil grin, "You know Mira, that when we are through with Taylor and all his other followers, there won't be anything but blowing radioactive ash where Terra Nova is standing."

They all laughed derisely at the satsifaction that would soon bring.

...

Their camp sat amidst a desert filled with manmade objects from across the centuries. Spanish and English galleons and merchant ships from the days of sail, a primitive Norse dragon ship, a reed craft from Egypt's days of the pharaohs, Mayan sailing ships. A few freighters from the early 1900's. Even the remains of the aircraft squadron that disappeared off the Florida coast in the 1950's.

The Sargasso Sea was the toilet bowl of the planet Earth, though many science fiction fans of the 20th Century called it the Bermuda Triangle. No one knew then how things mysteriously disappeared with no trace at random times from old Earth.

Lucas knew now. The Triangle flushed them all here. Into this wasteland. Including that first artifact – a 17th Century sailing ship's prow.

The Bermuda Triangle was natural time portal that Dwyer's project was trying to enhance and control, at a fraction of the cost and size of Hope Plaza, totally in secret, and would only benefit The Organization, with no false hope or pretense of the publicly advertised benefit and hope for mankind. Everyone knew there was no hope.

And when it was ready, it would transport the means to give the final solution to Taylor's little band of misguided 'do-gooders'.


	4. Chapter 4

"Lucas, I want something more dramatic," demanded Mira.

"The transport will be here soon, and I want it to leave a little 'calling card' before the big boom. Whatever is going on there, I want to ruin some kind of party they seem to be planning," she sneered.

"What did you have in mind, Mira?" quizzed Lucas, intrigued.

"The 'object' will be inert coming through right? It'll be all scrambled inside?" asked Mira.

"Well, that's a pretty simple description. Actually..."

Mira interrupted, "Then I want Dwyer to load the transport with convention bombs and guns, materialize the transport right over Terra Nova, and shoot at anything that moves before flying here. They are so lulled by their sense of security, they'll never know what hit them. Maybe we'll get lucky. No matter what, I want to make them remember we aren't all picking daisies up here in this terrible place."

Lucas loved it, "Good job, Mira. I will see to it."

...

After the engagment announcement, there was certainly no need to delay the young couple Mark and Maddy's marriage. Mark was an accomplished career soldier, and Maddy's education could continue as she worked as a scientist in the colony. They had everything they needed to create and support a family - except each other.

Maddy put herself into planning the wedding like it was a major science project, and she wanted to combine both their cultures – Hindu and Christian - in the ceremonies. Mark was highly supportive, and of course had started the idea of their dual culture wedding by doing the Sagai engagement.

Maddy and Mark's nuptials would be the first real wedding in Terra Nova, and so the entire colony wanted to celebrate, especially to honor the daughter of the heroic Chief of Police.

Jim was very amused to see Commander Taylor flustered for a few moments when Maddy and Mark asked him to preside over the ceremony. He'd done just about every other kind of duty as the Terra Nova leader, but never a marriage. People usually had come to the colony married or permanently single.

Maddy and her mother became closer than they had ever been. Maddy was no bridezilla, other than insisting on as many of the Hindi wedding traditions be followed as possible. Some had benefits for the men of the colony too.

In the Tilak ceremony, a couple of months before the actual wedding, all the men sought to honor the groom by visiting him and put Tilak powder – sandalwood ash paste and clay - on his forehead to honor his stature as the groom. By the time Taylor, Jim and Josh Shannon, and all Mark's soldier buddies were done with him, he looked like a ghost warrior in camouflage. He gave a forlorn look to his bride who was doubled over in laughter as she watched the ritual. The good part is that he was buried in desserts, fruits, new clothes, and garlands, which he shared with everyone afterwards.

Shortly thereafter, Elisabeth, Maddy, and Zoe had a great time organizing the Sangeet ritual – exclusively for the women of the colony. It was a time of dancing and singing. The three Shannon women practiced hours to show the traditional Hindu dances, and inspired by them, the other women danced many of their own cultural dances – Spanish, Italian, Irish, Scandinavian, Japanese and Swahili to name a few. Maddy received many blessings and well wishes from the women of the colony according to the tradition. The once lonely, geeky girl never felt so loved and appreciated as a 19 year old young woman.

While the women were partying on the colony plaza square, all the men congregated at Tom Boylan's Bar and all had a few too many drinks. The women of the colony were collectively angry at their men for days. Maddy gave Mark, Josh, and her father a stern lecture that some traditions – the bachelor party – were not appropriate to celebrate. Elisabeth was proud of her daughter.

As the day of the wedding approached, Maddy was most frantic about her wedding dress. She wanted an authentic sari. Nothing like that existed in Terra Nova. But one day, one of her mother's friends appeared at their home, who was an expert seamstress, and gave Maddy a present - nine meters of colorful, locally made cloth. It wasn't as elegant as the silks and linens of India, but she cried holding it in her hands. None of the elegant Indian jewelry existed either to go with the sari, but the women of the colony designed natural necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and hair pieces that would be used instead.

One aspect of the wedding was embarrassing for both Maddy and Mark to talk about. They were innocent enough to feel uncomfortable talking about the honeymoon. Fortunately they got some help from their family.

At Terra Nova Security Headquarters, Sergeant Reynolds looked despondent.

"What's wrong, soldier?" asked Taylor.

"Thinking about the wedding, sir."

Taylor scoffed, "You don't look like you are having happy thoughts, Sergeant. This is not a good time to be second guessing."

"Well, sir, it's a private matter."

"Wedding night, huh, Reynolds?"

Reynolds blushed and startled, "Sir!"

"Well it's not like you guys can fly to Hawaii for a honeymoon. Fact is Reynolds, that the undersea volcanoes that are someday gonna be Hawaii are still about 2000 meters below the Pacific Ocean surface right now."

They both laughed at that.

After that, Reynolds opened up, "We don't want to stay at her parents' place. It'll be hard to be...umm...discrete, sir. Any chance there is an apartment we can borrow, sir?"

"No, Reynolds, we still haven't gotten many restored, and the rest are not restorable. You might as well pitch a tent and be better off."

"Oh..."

"Unless..." Taylor pondered.

"Unless what, sir?"

"Come with me."

They climbed the stairs to his office.

Taylor turned and looked Reynolds at seriously, "Soldier, I am going to show you something that you need to forget after your honeymoon."

He flipped up his console, typed in some code words, and turned the monitor toward Reynolds.

"_That_, Sergeant, is your honeymoon suite. Outpost B."

"Begging your pardon, sir, but there is no Outpost B."

"You and everyone else think so. But I know _better_. Outpost B is an emergency escape bunker designed for survivors of a catastrophic disaster to Terra Nova. Turns out it will double as your honeymoon suite for a week, Reynolds."

Taylor panned the cameras around. Both could see the comfortable bunks, communications center, and an ample food supply. Outside, the Outpost was idyllic with a pond, trees, and a great view of the mountains.

Mark's eyes lit up, "This is incredible. I don't know what to say."

"Say 'thank you', Sergeant."

"Oh yes sir, thank you! But sir, how do we know it's operational?"

"Wash and I used it a few times, Sergeant," admitted Taylor, remembering happier days when Lt. Washington was still alive.

"Oh. Sorry sir."

"It's a war out there, Reynolds. Bad things happen."

...

At the same time, Elisabeth pulled Maddy aside after dinner and said, "Let's go for a walk."

Outside of the earshot of all the family, they strolled.

Maddy had to ask, "Mom? What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"No dear. Nothing at all. We just need to chat, and the family doesn't need to hear. This is about your wedding night."

Maddy blushed, "Oh Mom, I know about all that stuff. You taught me well. And I can _assure _you Mark and I haven't had any advance practice."

Put that matter-of-fact way, Elisabeth snickered at Maddy, "Well, I believe you Maddy, but you kids need your privacy. It's not like we can have you run off to the Terra Nova Hotel Honeymoon Suite. Your father, Josh, Zoe, and I can stay with friends for a few nights, while you two...umm...get acquainted. Everything will be just fine."

Maddy hugged her mother tightly, and said, "Mom, I gotta go tell Mark. He's been worried sick about this, but is embarrassed to ask anyone."

"Of course dear. Don't be too late. You have an experiment to run tomorrow early!"

Maddy ran as fast as she could to the security section and knocked on the barracks door breathlessly, "Is Sergeant Reynolds around?"

The soldiers were used to her many visits.

Corporal Simms turned and yelled, "Sarge, your lady is here!"

Reynolds hopped off his bunk in a heartbeat and went to her. Outside the barracks they chatted. Maddy shared what her mother had offered for privacy, but then Mark just smiled and told her what the real deal was going to be. All his nosy soldier buddies watched them through the windows and wondered what could possibly make her kiss him so hard, and that he would pick her up and twirl her around and around above his head in the activity field. The Sarge was one lucky guy, they all concluded.

...

Finally the day of the wedding and its many rituals arrived. It started by Elisabeth shoving Jim and Josh out of the house to go tend to Mark's wedding preparation needs. Next, Elisabeth started the Mehndi ritual, applying the intricate tattoos on her daughter from the dyes of prehistoric ancestors of modern Henna plants. This was a very private ceremony, as most of the tattoos all over her body would only be seen by her new husband. Zoe was amazed at her mother's artistry and Maddy's beauty. It was all that Maddy could do to stand still with the tickles of the brushstrokes. All of them tried very hard not to cry and ruin the Mehndi art, knowing that Maddy would become a new wife today.

Elisabeth and Zoe helped dress Maddy in her sari and natural jewelry. They were ready and started toward the plaza square.

As a soldier in a primitive world, Reynolds never expected a formal occasion, and had no ceremonial uniform, so he dressed the best he could in his normal uniform. Josh and Jim got him a boutonniere that would match Maddy's wedding dress and added a sash from the leftover sari material. They too headed to the square.

They saw each other as they approached the stage where the ceremonies would be held. Mark could not believe the beauty of Maddy. Her sari - with all the colors of the rainbow - was wrapped to accentuate all her best features, and Mark could not believe the intricacy of the Mendhi designs on her face, arms, sandaled feet, and her bare midriff that the sari revealed. The flowers in her hair, and natural and dyed fiber necklaces, earrings and multitude of bracelets on her arms and ankles made him feel like he was an Indian Mogul Raj of the middle ages. He was convinced that none of the Raj's had ever possessed a bride with the beauty of Maddy.

They stopped at the foot of the ceremonial tent, and exchanged garlands in the Var Mala ceremony, confirming their readiness to be husband and wife.

They climbed up the stage to the four pillared tent called the Mandap – made of bamboo, and decorated in traditional Hindu silver-gray and red floral patterns, with the four pillars signifying the love and support of their parents. Mark wished his parents could have seen all this.

There, Taylor led them in their vows – a combination of Vedic and Christian wedding traditions that he created. Everyone was amazed at the poignancy of the Mandap wedding ceremony. For all his hardness, Taylor was well known to be a deep thinker and philosopher. No one realized his true spiritual depth as well.

Mark and Maddy finished all their vows and "I do's", and kissed amidst the colony's rousing cheers. They were a beautiful sight to everyone. Jim and Elisabeth watched and held tight to each other as Elisabeth's eyes glistened.

The couple turned to the crowd, and was announced by Taylor proudly as the first new husband and wife of Terra Nova - to thunderous applause.

Mark's soldier buddies had their own surprise. All of them lined up and raised sabers above the young couple, honoring them as they processed to the reception. This was a shock, as the Terra Novan military force had no swords of any kind.

Before proceeding, Mark leaned to Corporal Simms, and whispered, "How?"

Simms smiled and explained, "Well Sarge, it was easy to make the swords from scratch and in secret after melting down some of the Phoenix Group's fighting vehicles – especially while you were out so much courting Maddy."

Mark felt very pleased with all the hard work that went into this thoughtful gesture that had been part of military weddings for centuries. Maddy squeezed Mark's arm and smiled up at him.

...

"Badlands, Project here," said Dwyer.

"Go ahead. You guys ready to launch? It seems there's a full blown wedding going on there and we weren't invited," replied Lucas.

"Well sir, about that launch. We've got bad news here."

_"What?"_ yelled Lucas.

"A super-hurricane came through the past two days. We got two platforms heavily damaged, sir."

Lucas pounded the table, "_Damn it_ Dwyer. How long?"

"Three...maybe six months," stated Dwyer.

"Make it _three_ or the Organization will be done with _both_ of us. Badlands out."

Mira asked,"What now?"

"Hurricane got them. Three months delay," seethed Lucas.

Through gritted teeth, Mira announced confidently, "Lucas, turn me loose. I could mount an operation _right now_. The men are very anxious for revenge against Taylor and Shannon. What better opportunity than to ruin a wedding of the people we hate the most?"

"NO! This has to be a complete surprise. One single surgical strike from the air. Not another cat and mouse skirmish where we always lose people and equipment," Lucas yelled.

"OK, Lucas. But for the record, I am upset with you and your friends' constant delays. I will complain to the Organization. You've lost your nerve, Lucas. Too much focus on technology, and not enough on just getting even the old fashioned way."

"Leave, Mira, before I really get angry. Then you'll know what 'getting even' really means," growled Lucas, who spun his chair around back to the computer screen.

...

The reception was more traditional to Mark's Judeo-Christian heritage, complete with a wedding cake, garter and bridal bouquet toss, and a toast to their fortune and health with alcoholic punch.

Without a functioning dairy, butter cream icing couldn't be duplicated, but the cake was still very tasty, and the bride and groom chose not to jam the cake in each other's faces, much to their friends' disappointment.

As Mark took off Maddy's garter, only he could see that the Mehndi decorations went completely up her legs and beyond, and was thrilled. Maddy blushed. He launched the garter directly at Josh, who out-jumped all the men to catch it. When Maddy tossed the bridal bouquet, Skye caught it.

Jim and Elisabeth exchanged knowing looks, seeing Josh and Skye standing close to each other and looking at each other lovingly. Another wedding was clearly not far away after today's celebration.

Gifts were heaped on the new couple. None was as special as the one from Commander Taylor.

He spoke, "I also have a gift for this young couple. As a new family – our first new family from _within_ Terra Nova – you need a good start for your household. We all know Jim and Elisabeth would gladly let you stay in their home, because a lot of homes were permanently damaged in the invasion and occupation. One was not. Lt. Washington's. It's _yours_ now, kids. Make it _happy _again.

Mark, Maddy, Jim, and Elisabeth gasped in unison. They all knew that the home of the slain Chief of Terra Nova Security Lt. Alicia Washington had stood empty since she was shot helping them escape. It had been a lasting memorial to Wash, whom Taylor loved. Now it would be a home.


	5. Chapter 5

It was time to get on their way before nightfall and the dangers of the jungle returned. The party continued on, but quietly the Shannon's and Taylor escorted Mark and Maddy to the front gate where an armored vehicle awaited them. Taylor had told Jim and Elisabeth where they were headed, and were grateful for yet another kindness from the Commander. The goodbyes were very tearful but happy, and the new couple headed out the gate.

They entered Outpost B hand in hand, exploring its secrets, grateful for the gift of being totally alone together. When they found the bunks, they stood and looked at each other silently. They finally they reached that awkward moment between a new husband and wife, knowing what was next as a result of their love.

Maddy broke the silence as she smiled, "I guess you should _unwrap _me now! I have a special gift for you. Here, hold this end."

She plugged in some traditional Indian music into the comm system, and began to dance, and said softly, "For your eyes only, Mark."

As she danced in the old ways, she left a trail of material in his hands and across the floor. The unwrapping sari material soon got mixed with uniform parts.

"How long is this, exactly?" Mark asked with mock indignation.

"Nine meters, Mr Impatient...," she teased.

But soon, the sari material was all on the floor and only the dancer and her Mehndi tattoos moved before her husband. He was amazed at the extent and the detail of the artwork, which fit every curve of her beautiful mocha skin, and she ended the dance in his arms and looked into his eyes.

"Mark, I _dare _you to mess up my tattoos."

"You are pretty feisty for a science geek."

She didn't waste the opening, "Wait until you see the experiment I am planning for you tonight..."

Mocha skin blended with white. Their next movements were together as one, in the wonderful tenderness and care of a newlywed couple.

They treasured their week of solitude together, swimming, enjoying the mountain views, eating together, walks in the woods, and especially enjoying each other. The already strong bond between them just grew deeper and deeper by week's end.

...

Upon their joyful return from their honeymoon, Mark and Maddy could hardly wait to move into Washington's apartment, even with a tearful goodbye to her parents. They _did_ make it happy again. It seemed that their new home was always full of family or friends celebrating one occasion or another.


	6. Chapter 6

Mark and Maddy had been married four months, but one early morning Mark's communicator went off early. It took awhile for the sleeping young couple, all tangled up together, to let Mark reach over to their dresser to answer the communicator link.

It was Taylor, who spoke gravely, "Sergeant Reynolds, we've picked up a temporal disturbance emanating from the Badlands. It seems our 'Time Jammer' diverted a time transport right into the center of the colony. Right now we have the advantage of surprise while they figure out they didn't land on our front porch. Thank goodness it worked!"

"We need an advance guard to go out and investigate now. Be ready in 20 minutes."

"Yes sir."

Mark clicked the communicator off and turned to his bride.

"Maddy..."

"Yes Mark, go. I know you have to. I am after all a soldier's wife."

"Still happy with that decision?"

She wrapped her arms around him and the feeling of skin against skin was incredible, "You bet, Sergeant. Come back to me, understand? My Dad always makes that promise to my Mom. And he's just a cop!"

"I intend to carry on the family tradition, Maddy. You can count on that!"

He dressed in combat gear swiftly, but she spread herself enticingly across their bed and let him see her completely as a farewell gift. It was all he could do to just kiss her and leave without lingering and being late. That had already happened more than a few times - to the snickers of his fellow warriors. Not this time. The battle with the renegade Sixers and mercenary Phoenix Group was back on again.

Mark smiled as he stared at the dark skin of his beautiful wife, "Seeing you like that will inspire me to fight back from the gates of hell itself to be with you soon, Maddy. You won't be alone long."

"I'm never alone Mark, with you in my heart now," she smiled back lovingly.

She rose, surrounded herself in the bed sheet, and escorted her husband to the door as he headed out to intercept the first threat from 2149 in over three and half years. They all knew it had been too good to last forever.

As he left, she knew it was time to head to the lab to discuss with her mother and Dr. Wallace her ideas to turn the Time Jammer shield into a temporal _weapon_ to defeat the new intruders, and seal the dimensional time rift permanently that would rid them of 2149 forever.

Taylor's traitorous son Lucas was not the _only_ mathematical mind gifted in time travel physics in Terra Nova.

…

At Terra Nova Security headquarters, everyone was trying to analyze what had been time transported from the future, and the Time Jammer had safely deflected into the Badlands – making it even more effective than the thought - the Badlands was a 1000 klicks distant. The sentries were very concerned with some of the readings.

"Lieutenant, was that thing armed?" he demanded.

An analyst fretted, "There were explosives on board, sir. But Commander Taylor, it's even worse. We detected quantum mechanics fluctuations in that temporal transfer when they tried to materialize the vehicle over us."

Taylor tried to remain calm, "Dear God. _Nukes…_ Reynolds, tell Jim, Elisabeth, Maddy and the other colonists to head for Outpost B on my word. It might save them, even though it was never built for that."

Reynolds had a terrible look on his face.

Taylor made the wrong assumption and tried to comfort Reynolds, "Sergeant, your wife Maddy is every _bit_ as strong as her father and mother. With or without us, that family has the toughest will to persevere that I have ever witnessed in my life."

Reynolds fought back a tear, "It's not her I'm worried about, or the family, sir. Maddy's pregnant. The radiation…"

Taylor pursed his lips at the news that would normally evoke a celebration at the bar, "Then you, Reynolds, have one more reason to help me defeat my son and his friends."

…

"Badlands to Dwyer. You _idiot!_ You sent the transport to us and not over the 'destination'. It never got to deliver the 'jelly beans' on the destination to shake them up."

Dwyer said with confidence, "I am sorry, sir but that's simply not possible. We had the exact coordinates for Terra Nova for the transport."

Lucas fidgeted, mulling the possibilities, and muttered to himself, "They have a temporal jammer! But…who would have done the math? Certainly not Malcolm. Wait… Maddy Shannon! Of course!"

He keyed the mike, "They have a time jammer. It sent the transport way off course. We will have to plot a different course for the 'main event'. Nonetheless, we have received the transport and the object. It's the best Easter Egg ever!"

Lucas then asked, "Should we recalibrate the object and launch as soon as we can?"

Dwyer warned, "Negative. If you launch the transport unprotected and alone now - since the surprise is gone - there is a finite chance Terra Nova can shoot it down. You need something they can't damage. Prepare to receive the 'main event' in a few days. It arrived this morning. Nothing they have will stop it."

Lucas leaned back and smiled, "Good! Badlands out."

Lucas started to work out the adjustments to 'the object' to make it a weapon again. Fortunately for Terra Nova it was harder than he thought it would ever be.

….

Taylor and Reynolds led the Terra Novan security team at high speed through the jungle to intercept the Sixer/Phoenix Group forces before they could recalibrate and use the tactical nuclear weapon against Terra Nova. Malcolm assured them it would be nearly a week before they could launch an assault, as temporal transportation at least theoretically scrambled the plutonium and heavy hydrogen atoms into non-fissile/non-fusion molecular arrangements for some time. They were in an alternate earth time line as well as in the past, and that scrambled nuclear materials' volatility.

Around the clock, Malcolm and Maddy worked to balance the equations in the Time Jammer to transform it to become a temporal weapon. If the security force could not destroy the nuke, the very survival of Terra Nova depended on their work being successful. Lucas, the Sixers, The Phoenix Group and their sponsors from 2152 were no longer content with occupation of the colony to get their riches from the ground by around them - they were just going to wipe Terra Nova away.

Elisabeth was worried about her daughter and her colleague Malcolm as they worked without let up. She prepared some natural stimulants to keep them going, but Maddy refused them. She went to the bathroom a lot. And finally she was adjusting several offensive algorithms when her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fainted out of her chair and slumped on to the floor.

"Maddy!" Elisabeth fretted. Jim came quickly to both of their sides, and supported Maddy's head gently.

"Dad. Mom. I'm OK."

Elisabeth moved a hand held medical scanner across her prostrate daughter's body.

"Yes, dear, I guess you are," Elisabeth smiled and took her husband's hand, "You're just pregnant!"

Jim fainted, and the two women laughed at a time when they both needed it most.

…

The Terra Nova forces took up defensive positions on the wooded edge of the Badlands and could see the Sixer/Phoenix Group camp in the distance. There was a makeshift landing pad with a standard vertical takeoff and landing troop/cargo transport on the pad. Reynolds focused his tele-binoculars on the pad, and pushed "transmit".

Back at the lab, Malcolm was relieved as he saw only the small transport and not a vast army through the long distance transmissions of that Reynolds was seeing in his binoculars. But it didn't stop him from knowing that a nuclear weapon was on that transport and being readied for use against Terra Nova, and that it must be stopped at all costs.

Taylor and Reynolds smiled at one another knowing they could mount an operation that would take out the transport and the weapon. There would be heavy causalities but it was doable.

But that confidence was short lived. Just then the sky above the Sixer camp started to crackle and spark in broad daylight. Lightning tendrils and blue current moved everywhere. It was as a temporal transfer in progress the size of which they had never seen.

Back at Terra Nova, Malcolm shouted, "There's a temporal shock going off the charts, Commander. What the hell is happening there?"

Reynolds spoke into his comm link, "Dr. Malcolm sir, we're gonna hafta get a bigger gun here."

Taylor ordered, "Retreat. We'll have to make a stand at home. We will be squashed like bugs if we take our stand here."


	7. Chapter 7

Lucas was ecstatic, "Project, this is Badlands. The 'main event' just happened. And it's big, bad and beautiful. It will be the perfect 'basket' for the 'Easter Egg' you sent earlier. Terra Nova's days are _truly_ numbered now."

Hovering above the Sixer Camp was the biggest airborne assault vehicle they had ever seen. It was gray and ominous and dark, bristling with projectile and energy weapons and defenses. Its teardrop-shaped fuselage was 100 by 250 meters, and heavily armored.

Nothing the Phoenix Group had left behind at Terra Nova could dent this leviathan.

A Phoenix Group security monitor said, "Mr. Lucas, sir, we picked up enemy movements at the end of the Badlands. Shall we intercept them?"

Lucas grimaced, "No. Let them go. My father will circle the wagons for a final bloody defense. Let them all be together when they die. Then we have no one left to chase down afterwards."

….

Fortunately, the last of the tests of the weaponization of the Time Jammer was ready. Using a lab sized Temporal Weapon lens, they aimed and shot a box. It disappeared.

"Now we wait," said Malcolm

Ten minutes later, the box reappeared slowly.

"It works!" Jim Shannon said hopefully.

"But not in a good way, Dad," Maddy announced.

"How is that?" her dad puzzled.

"Well no matter how far into time we shoot them, their new time line will intersect ours, and there they will be waiting for us. We have to send them in the future in a different dimension, so we never meet again," she explained.

Malcolm and Maddy, in a frenzy, readjusted aspects of the time transport equations.

Jim and Elisabeth looked at each other in amazement at the brilliance of their almost 20 year old daughter.

They shot again, and the box disappeared.

Maddy looked at the displays, "Excellent, it is coexisting with us, but in a different dimension as well as time. We will be safe now."

"We are ready," sighed Malcolm.

….

The evacuation had started to the underground complex at Outpost B, and the only ones left in camp were the Terra Nova defense forces led by Taylor and Reynolds. In the lab were Maddy, Malcolm, Jim, and Elisabeth. Despite objections, the other Shannon children Josh and Zoe, and his friend Skye, were ordered nearly by force to go the Outpost. They had been in a heated argument with their parents earlier.

Jim Shannon, with Elisabeth by his side, pleaded one last time with his daughter, "Maddy, you must save yourself and your child. Your family must survive, even if the rest of us don't. You have to go to Outpost B and be safe, honey."

Maddy explained seriously, "I am a soldier's wife now. I understand being a casualty of war as much as Mark does, Mom and Dad. Josh and Skye will take care of Zoe. Some of the family will survive. Besides, do either of you understand temporal physics? If this is going to work, Malcolm and I both have to do this."

They hugged knowing the fatal truth of it.

….

Eventually the behemoth assault vehicle came over the horizon. As huge as it was, it was slow, depending on its armor and defenses to survive. Unknown to Lucas and his terrorists, the last of the Terra Nova crews were emplacing the Temporal Jammer lenses and concentrators around the colony.

If only the defenses were sufficient to guide the giant assault vehicle into the radius of effectivity of the lenses, they might have a chance. The jammer was hooked directly into the power core of Terra Nova, tapping many more Gigawatts of energy needed for its transformation from jammer to weapon.

The tactical displays came up in the lab, and Maddy and Malcolm stared at every piece of data with an intensity that impressed her parents.

…

As he looked out from the assault vehicle cockpit, Lucas mused, "And now for the last surprise."

He donned a backpack with electronic box and a belted himself in.

"Are you sure it will work?" Asked Mira.

"Long enough to let me infiltrate their command center to stop Maddy and Malcolm and get my father."

He rappelled down from the lumbering craft, and energized the device. Around him auroras formed, and the scene took on a surreal look.

The assault vehicle stopped. But in fact, it didn't really stop.

Lucas' personal time distortion device let him exist in the time between seconds. It stopped time, rendered him invisible, but let him make the three hour hike into Terra Nova. In the midst of the camp he entered the lab, and saw a complex of displays with all his enemies frozen and looking at them. They had indeed devised some kind of time jammer! No wonder they were ready and had sent the forces. It confirmed why the small transport was shifted all the way from Terra Nova to the Badlands. He was impressed with their work, but it was all wasted now.

"Well a jammer is going to do them no good now. Not with the assault vehicle here already and on its way to bomb Terra Nova out of existence," he smirked.

He was studying some other things, but before he could find the truth that Malcolm and Maddy had transformed the jammer into a weapon, he felt his personal time distortion device sputter and start to return him to real time. So he pulled his knife, and grabbed Maddy by the throat.

He returned to real time, appearing to all of them. Subdued by surprise and with a knife to her throat, Maddy screamed. All heads turned.

"Lucas!" spit Taylor.

Taylor's son laughed, "You think you will defeat us with a jammer? Well, I will stay here and prevent you from doing anything while we drop the nuke right on top of you."

"You'll be killed too. What kind of victory is that for you?" Taylor questioned.

"Wrong again dear father. When we drop the nuke, I will reengage my personal time travel belt, and run safely away before it detonates on top of you. You'll all be dead, the assault vehicle will veer off, and I and my people will survive and finally, _finally_ get my revenge on you, Father."

Taylor shook his head in dismay hoping to use that to buy time, "How could I ever have failed you so badly as a father?"

"Do you really have to ask that again, Father? By letting my mother _die_," he said stiffly.

While the argument went on between father and son, Malcolm moved a few switches and dials unseen by Lucas.

Noting the delay tactics, Maddy tried her own move by letting her tears fall, "At _least_ let me give my husband a goodbye."

Lucas guffawed, "Married? Reynolds? 'The Geek and the Soldier'. How cute. Of course, Maddy. I am not a complete monster."

Out at the fire control station at the main part of the weaponized Temporal Jammer, Reynolds awaited the order to fire on the transport. It could almost drop its nuclear weapon on the colony now. He wondered why they had not given the order.

The comm link crackled, "Mark?"

"Maddy?" he could tell with the quiver in her voice that something was wrong.

"We have company…"

He recognized the code word for intruders. Reynolds signed several armed guards to go for the lab for a rescue.

Back at the lab, Malcolm gave the sign that he had tuned into Lucas' time distortion belt's frequencies.

Maddy noted Malcolm's actions but continued, "I…I love you Mark. We will see you and our child in heaven."

"Pregnant?" Lucas laughed, "How quaint. But too late. You'll never enjoy that child."

Maddy's eyes narrowed at Lucas' final insult, "Oh yes we _will_."

She left the microphone open. That was the cue. Mark pulled the trigger on the Temporal Weapon. All around the colony in a six mile radius the remote antennae glowed, issued forth their bolts of energy, which intersected, broadened, and surrounded the assault vehicle. It froze in the air. In the command chair the pilot strained to release the weapon. But no one could move. It was too late. The assault craft was surrounded by a massive pulsating sphere of red/orange energy.

Lucas was also paralyzed as his personal temporal transport device was triggered and jammed by their weapon. Jim helped Maddy move quickly away from Lucas' grasp, lest she get trapped in the field's increasing power.

The red-orange energy surrounded Lucas too, and simultaneously both he and the massive assault craft – and its deadly nuclear cargo - disappeared.

….

Lucas and the vehicle reappeared on the surface of a scarred and rocky world. It was terribly bright. Lucas was outside the assault craft as hatches started to open and very puzzled warriors began to poke their heads out. The air was thin, vaguely poisonous, and the heat was incredibly oppressive. He was going to have to get inside fast to survive here.

Above him a very large angry orange ball of flames blazed in what would be the morning sky on earth.

The vehicle's commander stood by Lucas and asked, "Sir, where are we?"

"I…I am not sure."

Lucas looked at his temporal transport display, and was shattered by the truth. It was four billion years into the future. They were standing on the ground of the far distant future earth, not another world.

"Oh no," said a genuinely terrified Lucas.

He and his colleagues watched as the orange ball blossomed into a gigantic red sphere. It was our own star going nova in its final death throes.

It was the end of time for our solar system. There was no running. The solar radiation vaporized Lucas and the Sixers and the Phoenix instantly, with the assault vehicle and the world that once was known as Earth soon afterward.

The bomb they had intended to drop on Terra Nova was a one megaton device - more than enough to decimate the colony. The death throes of our own sun released the power of a hundred billion megatons as the earth and all on and around it were disintegrated.

…

Maddy, Malcolm, her parents, Taylor hugged each other in relief. Mark rushed into the lab entrance and cradled Maddy in his arms as she sobbed.

He asked desperately, "Maddy, are you all right? The baby?"

She smiled with relief as he wiped her tears, "We're fine. Is it over, Mark?"

"They are gone Maddy, wherever I sent them they are gone now."

"And gone forever," Malcolm said gravely.

"What did you do, Malcolm? asked Taylor.

They all looked at the chronometer on the Time Jammer display. It showed four billion years hence. They all knew what that meant.

"I'm sorry sir, I couldn't take any chances they would come back."

"No worries, Malcolm. That wasn't my son. Lucas hasn't been my son since he was 14."

...

The celebration that night was somber, but heartfelt, with the family gathered around the dinner table at the Shannons. Taylor and Skye were their guests.

"Are we all going to be OK?" asked Elisabeth.

Jim observed, "I hope so. I think now we have all the time in the world."

Mark laughed, "Well we have a new clock that will start running in about eight months! Then we won't have any time for ourselves for awhile!"

They all laughed, and toasted – Maddy with just a glass of juice - the new baby to come.


	8. Chapter 8 - Unexpected Delivery

**Chapter 8: "Unexpected Delivery"**

**Author's Notes:** I am truly amazed and humbled by readers' response to my story of Mark and Maddy of Terra Nova with over 4000 views in a very short time. There have been number of requests to continue the story arc. So I will. I think I have the essence of a story line with Mira and the Sixers remaining, but it might take awhile to develop.

More than a few people have asked me about the fact that Maddy was pregnant and that they would like a birth story.

Here it is! enjoy! :D

...

_"Good, she's coming around,"_ thought Mark. That last contraction came so hard it made her scream and faint. "Maddy, are you back with me?"

"Uh, huh…" Maddy said groggily.

Maddy looked at her still-out-of-focus husband Mark, but then she realized what happened. She tried to sit up fast, but Mark wouldn't let her, "Easy Maddy, move carefully." He helped her take a sip of water from her canteen.

She was so confident at the start of this first pregnancy. She had studied every aspect of childbirth like the mathematically precise person she was. She and Mark were trained to support each other during delivery by the best doctor in Terra Nova – her own mother Elisabeth. Maddy knew childbirth by the textbook. But her pregnancy was not going by the book.

Elisabeth warned them both not to travel on that last scientific patrol – babies come in their own due time, not according to the demands of a future mother's schedule. She warned Maddy she'd been early with all three of the family's children. But Maddy insisted. Darn that family trait of stubborn, headstrong women.

Not only had she guessed wrong about the due date, now it was happening with just the two of them isolated deep in the jungle far from their vehicle, with no one to help. They were well into a long morning hike and studying a very rare Iguanodon family unit, when her labor began, and it was so painful she could barely walk immediately after labor started.

But Mark was there, now in full focus, helping her cope.

Fortunately for Maddy, Mark chose to be prepared for every situation. It was Mark's way to dote on Maddy, and besides, as a soldier, it was the way he was trained. She was very confident in his ability to assist her through the initial stages of labor. It was old-fashioned for a husband and wife to go through labor together in this era of computer-aided diagnosis and surgery. But with the old fashioned ways, she had planned to have an experienced doctor – her mother - to help her through the final stages.

Maddy wasn't even sure what caused the onset of labor. Maybe it was a bad batch of pterodactyl tikka, or that she maybe had over-exercised in her vain attempt to try to keep her figure even while pregnant. Or that tender little intimate session last night with Mark, whom she could never deny. He was very gentle, but no question she felt different 'down there' this morning when they started on the trail.

"Augh!" she yelled as another strong contraction threatened to cut her in half.

She used the breathing exercises her mother taught her in pregnancy class to focus away from the pain. Mark raised eyebrows among his fellow soldiers when he took the classes with her to understand exactly how to help her through each stage of childbirth. The girl friends and wives of his fellow soldiers were envious of the couple wanting to be so close during the experience which was so coldly clinical and 'automated' in their century, especially when they were limited to two children in the dying world they left. Mark got a lot of razzing over 'old fashioned childbirth' from his colleagues, but more than a few knew they wanted to do the same thing with their women.

The easy part was over, when Mark could simply walk her through the contractions, and help with her breathing exercises. She felt herself rapidly descending into the crazy middle "transition" stage of childbirth when she was going to need his help more than anything.

No matter how much she'd studied childhood, Maddy could not midwife herself, and prayed she could talk Mark through the procedures between contractions.

The next contraction hit her so hard she screamed loud enough to drive winged reptiles from their nests, and doubled her over in pain.

"Mark! I must sit!" she pleaded.

He looked for a protective spot and spotted a shady grove of ginkgoes. Mark took her in his strong arms, carried her to the grove, and sat her down. He knew what to do next. He gathered some logs to provide support under her legs so they were flexed and apart somewhat, and arranged a reclining back support from some smooth rocks. For comfort, he tried to put some moss and ferns behind her. He knew she wasn't going to stand again until they were both parents.

"Oh Mark, thank you! I am so thirsty, though. Please…" and he got her more water.

"Mark, you're going to have to check my progress now." He flushed, as he knew what that required. He knew Maddy's anatomy intimately, but he never thought he'd have to touch her like that. He was discrete, and examined her as midwives do, "You are making progress, Maddy, but you're nowhere near dilated enough for a baby."

He touched her stomach next, feeling a good heartbeat from the baby, but frowned as he declared, "Maddy, isn't the baby's head supposed to be down now?"

She fretted, "Oh my goodness, the baby is breech! No wonder there is so much pain. That is the hardest delivery."

She refused to tell Mark of the possible complications. But Mark saw the look. He knew he could lose them both.

Mark said, "Maddy, we have to turn the baby now before it's too late. Tell me how."

She screamed again, grabbing his ears with a crazed look, "Mark, you must keep looking at me, I can get through this only if you are right here, right now for me. You got me into this mess; you have to get me out!"

She meant no harm in what she said; she was just in deep labor.

The contractions started hitting her more frequently, and he couldn't get her to breathe with him like she should. The baby was coming too early, it was breech, and its little heartbeat was strained when she contracted each time. He prayed, "Please Lord, I cannot lose the two people I love the most!"

Mark thought, "_Can no one help us? Wait! There is someone!"_

Calmly, he whispered inches away from her face,"I will get someone who will help."

He reached for his radio, and said with urgency, "Patrol 1 to Terra Nova, I am in urgent need of help. Teammate down."

He had to talk in code, lest Mira and the remaining Sixers be monitoring them, and try to capture them.

"Terra Nova here, what is it soldier?" Taylor took the microphone from the radioman. He knew who was out there, and was worried something like would happen. He heard their argument with Elisabeth.

"We need a doctor, sir. One in particular," Mark said urgently.

"Understood. Making the call now," said Taylor matter-of-factly.

He picked up another radio and paged Elisabeth, "Doctor, you're needed.

She was frantic, "Are they back yet?"

"No ma'am, they are in the bush. But I am pretty sure it's happening now. Out there."

She resisted the urge to be angry, but knew she had to concentrate on helping her kids – and grandchild to be. They had insisted on not knowing the gender.

"Get me through to them Taylor. And tell Jim."

Taylor patched Elisabeth through to Mark and Maddy on the comlink, "Are you there?"

"Yes, Mother," Maddy simply couldn't talk in code any more. She was desperate. Mark had the radio on speakerphone.

Another contraction seized her in pain, "Aagh!"

Elisabeth swallowed hard, trying to be a doctor first and mother second, and reassured Maddy, "Hang on. I will get you through this. I have assisted many lives into this world. With Mark's help, your child will be the next, I assure you."

Maddy let out a pleased sigh, but too soon. Another contraction gripped her, causing her to arch her back in pain this time. The baby was starting to get stuck.

While Mark was there to focus Maddy, and talk her calmly through the painful contractions, it was Elisabeth's expertise that guided Mark's hands and arms. Mark gave her another much-needed drink from his canteen.

Elisabeth said deliberately, "Maddy, we're going to get the baby in the right position now. Mark - you are going to have to do this. This may be very uncomfortable".

With great care and gentleness, Elisabeth explained to Mark how to place his hands on Maddy's stomach to turn the baby in her womb without hurting it, and without hurting the umbilical cord. He could now feel a much stronger pulse in their child.

The next contraction wasn't nearly as bad as before. Maddy started to feel better about the situation. "Thank you, Mom and Mark; that one was much better!"

She concentrated more on her breathing. Mark cooled her head with water and gave her another sip to drink.

At Elisabeth's direction, Mark repositioned Maddy's legs much further apart, and prepared her for the final stage of delivery. Elisabeth said to Maddy, "Mark is going to have to break your water; it's going to hurt a lot, but you'll feel better afterward."

Maddy grew wide in worry as Mark took his pocket knife and cauterized it to carefully cut her internally, and groaned as her baby's amniotic sac was broken, but felt such relief from the pressure release. The contractions then came immediately faster and harder. She never let her eyes wander from Mark. He gained confidence that he had done everything right so far at his mother-in-law's direction. After the next contraction, Elisabeth asked Mark to check Maddy's condition again, and as the next contraction came, Elisabeth said cheerfully, "Honey, you are ready! Hold your breath and bear down hard, Maddy!"

Elisabeth could hear her daughter grunt and push.

"I think she did it fine, Doctor," Mark said with confidence.

"There you go! Good girl! Hold your breath again and push!" After a series of strong pushes, and Mark could look down and see the baby's head, then shoulders, then all of him – a boy!

And then a piercing cry rang out in the jungle. The firstborn son of Mark and Maddy made it into the world! After cutting the umbilical cord, Mark held his child, while new mother Maddy sighed with great relief at the sight of their little boy, and the two of them cried together in happiness. He had very dark hair, and had Maddy's wonderful mocha skin tone.

Mark gently gave the baby to Maddy who let him lie over her heart, as Elisabeth instructed Mark to help with all the final aspects of restoring his wife's body to aid her quick physical recovery. After that, while hearing the baby's sweet noises, and the happy husband and wife chattering, Elisabeth sat back in her chair. Jim, who had rushed to her side when he had heard, rubbed her shoulders. She patted his hands.

"Way to go, Grandma," Jim teased. She smiled up at him.

Mark said to Elisabeth, "We are so grateful, Mom. We would have never done it without you."

Elisabeth felt elated with Mark calling her 'Mom'.

Maddy nursed her newborn son Aaron, with Mark now sitting beside her, with his arm on her shoulder, gently stroking his tiny newborn son's cheek with his finger. Maddy whispered to their newborn, "Something that I need to confide to you, Aaron – you have the best father in the whole world. What child in this age can say that their father brought them into this world?" and she winked at Mark, "even with a little bit of my help!"

"And me too," joked Elisabeth with a crackle over the radio. They all laughed together. A second patrol vehicle pulled up beside them, having traced their radio, with orders to get them back to the clinic as soon as possible.

"Man, are we glad to see you!" said a very relaxed Mark.

"Baby and Mommy Transport Company at your service, Sergeant Reynolds." joked the driver.

...

Monitoring the entire process from far away, still stranded in the Badlands, Mira turned to her assistant, and growled, "I think we have new way to force our will on our enemies."


	9. Chapter 9 - Josh and Skye

**Title:** "Josh and Skye"

**Rating:** T – romance

**Writer:** ayziks

**Word Count:** 3793

**Summary: **We are going to take a break from Mark and Maddy and their new baby to go back in time - right after Mark and Maddy's wedding - to tie up the loose ends of another Terra Nova couple. Throughout the show, Josh and Skye are constantly in trouble – usually together - and in the uneasy peace that follows the end of TN, discover their friendship has grown to love, and create more trouble as a result of their plans to build their lives together.

...

Josh lay contentedly with his head in Skye's lap as they sat on her mother's apartment porch. Skye was absent-mindedly playing with Josh's hair. They sighed simultaneously. Skye's mother looked out the window to see them together on the porch and just smiled.

Skye said, "I'm _bored_. Nothing _ever_ happens here anymore."

"Just my geeky sister's frilly wedding," complained Josh.

"Oh? The lovebirds? Gag me," fumed Skye.

Josh snickered, agreeing with Skye, but as Maddy's brother, couldn't actually say that.

"Whaddaya wanna do?" asked Josh.

"I dunno, whaddaya _you_ wanna do?" retorted Skye.

They laughed knowing where that old kid's game would go.

Josh sat up, looked at Skye, and suggested, "Let's go 'outside the gate'. I know_ just_ the place!"

She knew without Josh saying, but added, "But wait. Let me get my biki-!"

Before she could finish, he grabbed her hand, and pulled her along anxiously. At their favorite hidden exit point in the fence, they ducked under the bars and headed into the jungle. She wondered what Josh had in mind. She knew how he loved seeing her in her blue bikini.

At the Terra Nova military force's security monitor, a sentry spoke to the colony's leader, "Commander Taylor, there's two people sneaking out of the colony."

Taylor sternly said, "Let me see that."

He swiveled the monitor just in time to see Josh and Skye go hand-in-hand under the bars.

He cracked a smile and ordered, "Let them go, soldier."

...

They half-ran to their favorite place to get away - the forbidden zone. With all the threats to Terra Nova gone for over three years, it was a safer place now. It was now refuge just for them. There before them was the natural majesty of the stream and the falls, but scrawled into the surrounding stones were Commander Taylor's traitorous son's time travel mathematics – a reminder of the constant threat facing the colony from the future. On their first time here, Josh thought they were etchings by an alien race, or the glyphs of an ancient unknown people in this alternate time line they were now - hopefully -permanently part of.

They stood on the rounded rock that dominated the stream, and looked around at the trees, the cliffs, and the waterfall to be certain of their privacy. This was their special place now. Commander Taylor knew that, and honored that.

Josh removed his shirt, and looked at Skye, "Well? Are you swimming with me or not?"

"Well for starters, smart guy, we left so fast you made me leave my bikini behind."

Josh's mind drifted. The blue bikini captivated him so on his first day in Terra Nova with her. In his entire life he had never seen a girl in a bikini. In 2149, water was far too precious to swim in, so no one did. At Terra Nova, it was an everyday occurrence, at least for them.

"Josh?"

"Oh, yeah, Skye. Sorry. I was thinking about your bikini."

"Thinking about it a bit _too_ hard I would say," she smirked.

He recovered, and challenged her as he skimmed off the last vestige of his clothing, grinning unashamedly, "Well Skye, I thought today we'd try something _different_."

Her eyes went wide with her first glimpse of all of Josh standing in front of her, and blushed so deeply that Josh could easily see. She was ecstatic to see him, but tried to be nonchalant, "Well, it may be OK for _you _to do that, but I'm a _girl_. Girls don't _do_ things like that."

Josh teased her, "C'mon, Skye, where's your sense of adventure?"

That was too much challenge in that for her not to take it. Their whole relationship was built on daring each other.

She started removing her clothes aggressively until the last piece was gone, "OK, Mr Smarty-pants, is this _adventurous_ enough for you?"

She struck a sultry pose to show off. Josh blinked and stared, amazed by of the beauty of Skye. She was much prettier than he even imagined. A bikini only revealed so much. He couldn't help his physical reaction to her.

Skye was very happy at the effect she'd had on Josh, but waved at his astonished expression, "Hello? Anyone _home_ over there? Did you come here to _stare_ at me, or to swim?"

"Do I have a _choice?"_ He kidded.

She faked an angry growl and charged him, toppling both into the deep cool water of the stream's natural pool. They came up soaked, threw their arms around each other, and hugged. The first time sense of skin-on-skin in the cool water was exhilarating.

"Bored _now_, Skye?"

"Not on your life, buster. Catch me if you can!" teased Skye.

She kissed him hard on the lips, but before he could react, splashed water in his face, and swam quickly away. He gasped and stroked after her.

The valley containing the creek and its pools and overlooking cliffs reverberated with sounds of splashing water and their laughter. They chased each other over every boulder, jumped from the rocks and the higher cliffs into the deep rushing waters.

But eventually, he cornered her in an isolated cove with a steep cliff and a small beach of soft sand. He tackled her half way out of the water.

"Gotcha!" he spoke loudly.

"Guess you did…," she spoke softly in feigned disappointment.

For a moment they just looked at each other. He kissed her, lingered, and she returned his affection. The kissing got deeper and longer, and their embrace got much more intense. They stopped for a moment.

Josh wanted to make sure he was not forcing anything on Skye, and asked, "Well my friend. Are you ready for the _next_ adventure together?"

She said demurely, "I'm a _lot_ more than just your friend, Josh. Yes. I've _been_ ready."

He was delighted to hear that, and answered, "Me too."

Their passion grew, and the sounds of their loving softly echoed on the cliff behind them and through the small valley.

...

They lay together on the beach after their first time together, with Skye still on her back, with Josh next to her, with his head propped up on his arm. They were content for a moment to just look and smile at each other. Josh broke the silence as he put a finger on her nose, "Skye. I really love you. I have for awhile. I was just afraid of what you might say to that."

Skye didn't hesitate to answer as she caressed his face, "I'd say 'I love you too, Josh'. Still afraid _now?"_

He just grinned and kissed her.

She'd secretly loved him a very long time, but for Josh there was always the promise of his girl friend/fiancé Kara coming to Terra Nova that pervaded his every thought, and he never even noticed Skye's interest in him. That fervent desire for Kara, and all the trouble it caused Josh with his friends like Skye and his family, turned out to be a death sentence for Kara. Within seconds of getting to Terra Nova, she was killed by the terrorist bomb that had started the invasion of Terra Nova. The self-centered boy turned into a man overnight. But over the past three years, the memory of Kara faded, and the friendship between Josh and Skye flourished beyond friendship in words unsaid. Until now.

Skye asked the hard question, "Josh, I thought you loved Kara."

He swallowed hard, and said, "I did. But she's been gone over three years, Skye. I love _you_ now."

She teased him a bit to lighten the mood, "Hmm. So I'm your _second_ choice, huh? The 'other' woman. Your 'on the rebound' lover…"

He shushed her by kissing her hard. Unexpectedly, he looked very seriously into her eyes and admitted, "Had I met you first in 2149, there would have _never_ been a 'Kara'."

He leaned into her and they kissed again. That simple statement thrilled her deeply, and tears welled up in her eyes. Their passion returned once more, even better than the first time.

...

As Josh lay exhausted, Skye tweaked his nose, and got up as she said, "Let's go have some _more_ fun."

Josh faked being disappointed, "How can _anything_ be more fun than what we just did?"

She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him, but grabbed his hand, pulled him upright, and thought to herself how right he was.

They dressed and started exploring the familiar surrounding forest. As it turns out, the next adventure found them.

...

Josh was the first to notice, cocking his head to one side while asking, "Hear that? That noise?"

"Yes Josh. It's just another _incredibly_ dangerous dinosaur, that's all," she shuddered and wanted to get out of there.

"Not that one. Triceratops. They are like giant puppies that poop a lot. Oh wait, puppies do that, too. Let's go see."

He grabbed her by the arm, but she resisted strongly.

"Oh, no Josh Shannon, you are _not_ gonna drag me over there. Even a slobbery, friendly, giant puppy might accidentally squish us. Besides, Triceratops have 'lunch meat' stamped on their sides for the Rex's."

"Aww, c'mon, Skye. It'll be fun! I'm going. You want to stay here alone?"

She rolled her eyes, and acquiesced. She knew she was going to regret this move.

They crept stealthily up downwind from the skitterish plant eater. The big dinosaur was grazing on the edge of the great forest.

A crazy idea formed in Josh's brain and he whispered to Skye, "This perfect. I want to be the first rider of a Triceratops in recorded history."

Skye resisted the urge to slap him and said firmly, "Joshua Shannon, you are certifiably nuts. What would your dad say about that hair-brained idea?

His infectious broad smile made her knees weak as he said without hesitating, "'Ride 'em cowboy.'"

She fumed, not wanting to hear that answer. But Josh was right. His dad would say that.

She sighed, "Well, what good is a cowboy without his cowgirl? Count me in on this…assured suicide stunt."

They silently climbed a tree adjacent to the Triceratops. It still didn't see them, and they used the tree to block its line of sight. They edged out on a giant limb over the Trike's neck.

They looked at each other with a combination of fear and excitement, held hands tightly, and jumped.

The Trike roared with the two youths straddling its shoulders, but couldn't throw them off no matter what it did. It bucked, it rubbed the trees, and it even tried to lash its tail at them, but couldn't connect with them. But even the dim-witted Trike noted that it wasn't getting bitten or hurt by whatever was on its back, so after a few minutes it actually started to settle down and roam about with them riding. It was exhilarating.

Skye admitted, "Wow Josh, this is pretty amazing. It's actually comfortable."

The Trike wandered and grazed with its two unexpected riders. They were amused that it was taking them mostly in the direction of Terra Nova.

Josh dreamed, "Skye, maybe we can maneuver it to walk past the front gate to show off a little?"

"Dream on, 'cowboy'," and she gave him an intentionally perturbed look.

It was late in the day. It was time to wrap up their fun ride, head back by sunset, and before their families missed them, even though they knew that Josh and Skye were often doing things together when they weren't working. This friendship had the blessings of everyone.

Josh helped Skye drop down from the Trike who stopped to graze, but suddenly a Carnitor burst forth from the jungle, running at full speed and making a terrible noise, which froze the Triceratops. The Carnitor dropped his head and butted the sides of the Trike. The sounds of bones crunching was terrible, and the Trike fell to its side. Worse, the impact tossed Josh twenty feet across the jungle floor. Skye screamed, which unfortunately attracted the attention of the Carny.

Luckily for Josh, he landed unharmed but for a few bruises and a slightly twisted ankle. He ran quickly for Skye, pulled her by the hand, "Quick Skye, run!"

She still had time for a snide remark as they fled, "OK, Captain Obvious."

They were only a hundred yards from their hidden way into Terra Nova, but it looked like a mile, with the Carny closing the gap between them in huge strides. The rhythm of its running shook the earth under then, causing them to be even more unsteady as they ran. The Carnitor roared again, hope to terrify its two small prey. But the kids knew the noises worked to their advantage. They could hear the barrier fence start to electrify, activated by the Carny's horrendous growling and its full speed charge toward them.

Now, not only did they have to worry about the Carny eating them, but the 10,000 volts of the electric fence electrocuting them as well. A fraction of a second in front of the fierce predator, they rolled under the fence line and into safety without touching the bars. The Carnitor hit the humming fence at full speed. Blue-colored tendrils of electricity crawled all over the giant dinosaur. The fence bowed in and it looked like it would yield, but the terrible shock sent the Carny reeling backward, bellowing in unimaginable pain. The smell of seared flesh was sickening. Only a few yards back from this scene of absolute prehistoric power versus modern technology, Josh and Skye clutched each other, heaving with exhaustion, raw emotion, and panic. They were grateful to be alive.

The burned dinosaur licked its burns and moved away from the fence, hoping the Trike was still down and easier to eat than these two.

Back at the Terra Nova security monitor, a disinterested guard simply registered another Rex attack on the fence line, but didn't notice Skye and Josh shivering and huddled together. They stroked each other's faces, sat down, and hugged tightly, trying to settle down from the Ordeal.

Josh humbly offered, "For the record, Skye, I'm _not _bored anymore."

She stifled a laugh, and punched his shoulder, "Josh Shannon, you are a terrible boyfriend. Your stupid ideas could have gotten us both killed. _Again_. What am I _ever_ going to do with you?"

Josh thought fast, "Umm…how about marry me?"

Skye was stunned, "_What?_ What did you say?"

He said simply again, "Marry me."

_"__Really?"_

It was a question she had dreamed of but never expected to happen.

"Really. Right here. Right now, Skye Alexandria Tate. Marry me."

"Oh yes! Yes I will," She just about strangled Josh embracing him so hard around the neck.

Josh teased, "'Yes' to marry me? Or 'yes' to 'marry me now'?"

"Both! I don't need a fancy wedding – you know that. We gotta tell our parents and get Commander Taylor to marry us. Right now. Tonight."

They raced hand-in-hand to her mother's house, completely out of breath. Both looked like they had been through combat training together with the mud, sweat, and blood of their dinosaur encounter.

She saw them coming and opened the door and was both shocked and worried, "Kids, what on _earth_ happened to you?"

"Mom, that doesn't matter right now. Listen to Josh."

Josh tried to stand properly and formally, but was totally out of breath, "Mrs. Tate, I love your daughter. I want to marry her."

Deborah Tate laughed a bit, "Oh, I am so excited for you two. That's wonderful Josh," and hugged her dirty and sweaty daughter.

She scolded them a bit, "But you might have waited till you were rested and cleaner to tell me that."

"Mrs Tate, you may have misunderstood me. I want to marry her now. _Tonight."_

She gave a perplexed look that turned to extreme worry, "You two haven't done something that makes you _have _to get married, did you?'

"Of _course_ not mother," Skye reassured her.

"So, then, children, what's the rush? Why not wait for a nice wedding?"

Skye explained, "Because we love each other and want to be together from this day forward. Mom I don't need – or want - a fancy wedding. Why wait? We're all grown up, we have jobs, and we just need each other."

Skye clutched Josh's arm, "Every day we have together in Terra Nova is just borrowed time from 2149. Let Josh and me be happy until whatever the future has to deal us happens."

They had her there. Another invasion – much more deadly than the first - could happen at any moment.

She didn't know what to say, but saw the commitment in their eyes that she had seen over the past three years as 'just friends', so she said, "I only want you kids to be happy, and to not be sorry for a _lifetime _because you rushed things. But you have my permission. So what happens next?"

They hugged each other and Skye's mom in appreciation.

Skye excitedly said, "We all go get Josh's parents and have Commander Taylor marry us!"

A similar scene of questions and worries and skepticism repeated itself at the Shannon's. Josh's little sister Zoe was excited about them getting married, not really understanding what was going on. Josh's mother Elisabeth felt a little better when Deborah Tate told her that the marriage had her approval.

Josh's father Jim disagreed strongly, and was about to put his foot down in denying the immediate marriage when Elisabeth emphasized, "Remember Jim, we would have eloped that _very night_ when my father nearly said 'no'. Is there anything different then than now?"

Jim relented and agreed to the marriage, and hasty as it seemed, their parents conceded the young couple had been very close friends for over three years. In matters of the heart, Elisabeth always convinced her husband. Soon the Shannon and Tate families were knocking on Commander Taylor's door. It was more than politely late to do that.

A groggy Commander Taylor answered his door, but was quickly startled awake when he saw them all anxiously standing there, and the disheveled look of Josh and Skye, "Oh no. This looks like trouble with a capital 'T'."

After the long story was repeated for the third time, an initially reluctant Commander Taylor did lecture Skye and Josh, but then agreed, "I _sure_ hope you two know what you are doing by getting married. There were a lot of times three years ago when you made a lot of bad decisions that got you crossways with the Sixers and Terra Nova, and look what kind of trouble that got you! And now here you stand together generating more trouble. But who am I do deny young love in this colony?"

The ceremony was simple and quick, and of course neither one had a ring to give the other, but their obvious love – not infatuation – for each other didn't need a visible symbol for now. It was all right there in their eyes, and in that first kiss of marriage.

But their parents also saw their love for each other was buried somewhere underneath the grime, sweat, scratches, caked blood, and unkempt hair of their ordeal with the Carny. Everyone chuckled, realizing just how dreadful the pair looked after their narrow escape. But they hugged the new couple tight in congratulations – dirt and all. Their parents and Taylor knew them all too well.

Jim Shannon was the most amused, "Kids, you are going to have the _most_ interesting wedding portrait ever! Somehow being beat up and dirty looks _natural_ on you two."

Taylor attempted to look stern, "Before you go, I _insist_ on you doing one thing. Clean up for each other. My shower is right over there."

...

Fresh from their first shower together, in clean clothes their mothers brought for them, and ready to leave, Elisabeth asked, "So where are you two going?"

Skye said matter of factly, "Well, there is a perfectly good abandoned tree house a few klicks away."

Their parents had a stunned look. Especially Deborah, who had been held there for months against her will by the Sixer rebels.

Taylor couldn't help but interject, "Now kids, I know you _constantly_ like to take a walk on the wild side – it's just in you both – but that's a pretty dangerous place even without the Sixer rebels and the Phoenix Team mercenaries living there."

Josh stood by Skye's desire, "We'd be alone."

Taylor offered, "I have a better place for you – Outpost B – Terra Nova's safe and secure underground bunker, with all the amenities of home for your first few days together."

He proceeded to show it to them on the security monitor, and explained how Josh's sister Maddy and new husband Mark Reynolds had used it for their recent honeymoon. He offered Josh and Skye the card key to the Outpost.

Josh scoffed, "Thank you very much, Commander, but Outpost B needs to be my sister Maddy's special place. We need our _own_ place to start out."

Taylor cocked an eyebrow at them both, "Well then, my wedding gift to you is to help you to live long enough out there to see your day-after-the-wedding sunrise."

He pulled two huge electric rifles with extra charges out of the gun safe.

Taylor handed them each a gun and ordered, not suggested, "Take these with you. There are a lot of nasty creatures out there, especially in that area. We know not to disturb you on your wedding night, but there are things out there that are likely to mistake you for a piece of wedding cake."

Despite some remaining reluctance over their intended first night destination, the older adults bid Skye and Josh a safe journey in an armored personnel vehicle. They all were second guessing if they should have allowed their adventurous children to rush headlong into marriage like they did everything else. But they all concluded that was Josh and Skye's way, and there was really no telling them otherwise. They were both 21, and could have easily defied all of them, and probably would have. They joked how these two troublemakers truly deserved each other, and only half-jokingly pitied their future children.

...

The next morning, everyone was surprised when Josh and Skye came back to Terra Nova, marched along holding hands tightly, striding with purpose into the Commander's Headquarters, and placed two fully spent and damaged electric rifles on Taylor's desk. Jim Shannon was with Taylor like normal, doing his police work, but looked at the kids, and was just barely able to suppress his laughter. For a second time in consecutive nights, Josh and Skye were covered head to toe in filth, had a new set of scratches, torn clothing, and matted hair.

Josh asked Taylor sheepishly, with a haggard-looking Skye clutching his arm in a death grip, "Commander Taylor, I think Skye and I would like to have that Outpost B card key you offered us…"


	10. Chapter 10 - Mira

**Author's Notes:** Hi TN fans! I woulld like personally thank you for the immense following to my Mark and Maddy story, and I am responding to the multiple requests to continue their story, and that of their family and friends. The past two chapters were fun stand alone storys about their first child and about Josh and Skye, but we know embark on a new multi chapter adventure. I hope you enjoy this!

**Chapter 10: Mira**

Holed up deep in the badlands Mira realized for the first time that she and the Sixers and the Phoenix Group were running out of time.

It was clear that the mission to nuke Terra Nova had failed disastrously, and that the assault craft and Lucas Taylor were not coming back. The Sixers' outpost in exile was deteriorating. Their existence was miserable on the furthest reach of the northern plains and scrub forests on the border of the desolate wasteland that was the Badlands. There was never adequate water and they didn't have enough food. Everything was breaking down. All the equipment they had been forced to flee with was not intended to work indefinitely – it was designed to only last long enough to make a lightning-fast attack on Terra Nova and then they would take over the outpost themselves. Most of the armored vehicles had all become non-functional. The personnel shuttle was flight worthy but not capable of mounting an airborne attack. Their friends from 2149 showed no signs coming with any new supplies and warfighting equipment. There were indications that the Terra Novans had developed some kind of time shield to its keep people safe that kept everything from the future out of this time.

A dozen of her colleagues had died of disease and dinosaur attacks. That had been a surprise. The dinosaurs were smaller in this more barren, colder region of Cretaceous Earth, but were just as vicious and deadly as any of the monstrous therapods living in the climax forest. A thousand knee-high microraptors in a flock were just as unstoppable as one . They could not let their guard down for a moment.

And there was the matter of her heart. Sold on the promise that all would be well for her seven year old (now twelve) child Sienna if she just killed Taylor and secured the riches of Earth for her 'employers', she let herself get sucked into this mess, and never anticipated being defeated by the formidable foes Taylor and all the Shannons had become. Now, she and her daughter were separated even further. She had no communication of any sort with 2149. No contact whatsoever. But at the same time her happiness was denied, her foes got to enjoy life like any other day. Mark and Maddy were married for years now and had a baby to care for, while Mira's 'baby' grew up in the future and she had no idea who was raising and influencing her. Skye, the ultimate traitor to the Sixer cause, was married to the son of one of her most hated enemies. Skye's mother, the ransom for the then-young girl's cooperation, was well again, and reunited with her daughter and son-in-law. It was Mira's nightmare scenario. Her heart grew harder and her rage welled within her for revenge. She despaired of winning and ever seeing her daughter again.

But there were threats more cunning than the saurids and the people of Terra Nova. Something else was out there. It started when things started to disappear slowly at first, barely detectible when they were all well-armed and their giant assault ship held whatever was out there was held at bay. Now that their weapons were discharging and the war vehicles were breaking one by one, the selective attacks got bolder. The threat knew they were weaker.

It was clear that these threats were two-legged, and had nothing to do with Terra Nova. But how? Mira had seen the irrefutable evidence of the 18th century ships in the desert, including the wooden prow that they discovered. The detritus of the other eras littered the wastelands, including World War 2 ships and airplanes, 20th and 21st century yachts and cruise ships, a jet airliner or two, and other things that. Lucas explained that all of those things, and the people in them, got too close to the natural time trap that was the Bermuda Triangle. Surely there was nothing more but wrecks and debris littered across the desert.

But Mira couldn't worry about that now. Whatever human threat was here on this ancient earth would probably find corpses if Mira didn't do something. She had to infiltrate Terra Nova and take over the colony to save her people. Coexistence with them was out of the question. They represented everything she detested. She'd overheard the colonists' intercepted radio conversations who were now riding a false sense of security having taken out the assault ship, neutralized the nuke, and somehow kept 2149 out of their timeline. If they had some sort of time travel machine, she needed to find a way to capture it and get her child here or get herself out of this Godforsaken place and let all her "friends" fend for themselves. She hated her life here as much as she hated Taylor and the Shannons and their disgusting happy lives here.

"To hell with this place," she said in exasperation.

"What, Mira?" asked a subordinate.

"We have to do something. We will die here," she asserted.

Mira continued, "We have to get someone into the inside Terra Nova. Someone loyal to us, but appears innocent to them. They have to work slowly enough to gain those idiots' trust, and then bring down their defenses. Those we don't kill we'll let them have a taste of this…this…existence we have now."

"Don't you think they'll be on to us? That didn't work so well the last time. And we had a lot bigger guns then."

"They've all grown fat and lazy while we starve and die out here."

"If you want to try something Mira, we're in with you."

…

Mira assembled her people, and asked, "We need a volunteer."

"For what Mira? Another suicide mission?" Scoffed a Phoenix Group soldier, who had an uneasy alliance with her.

She pistol-whipped the mercenary for his snide remark, causing him to collapse at her feet, and yelled, "Any other complainers? No. I need someone to join the Terra Novans."

They all stared at her with stunned expressions.

"No, I don't mean someone to become a turncoat. I mean infiltrate them. Someone to go 'make friends' with them. Someone to reach their soft, gullible hearts that we are all dying out here, and that the humane thing is to help us survive. Find out what they are doing. Sabotage whatever it is that blocks our friends from coming to rescue us, get reinforcements, and then defeat the Terra Novans."

_"Or get me home",_ she thought.

All hands went up.

She picked the youngest volunteer. Steven. A young man who had been friends with Maddy in school, but then left to join the Sixer cause. He was someone the girl would forgive and trust, and persuade the others to take back into their society.

"Gather your gear, Steven. You are going back."

"Why me, Mira?"

"Because you were friends with Maddy at your school. She's their weakest link. She's too nice. She'll believe you."

"Yeah. I think I can do that job. Do I have to walk?"

"Of course not. We still have the shuttle. It's solar powered. We'll fly low under their radar, and land just over their sensor horizon. You'll only have about 10 klicks to walk."

"Ten klicks in that dino-infested forest might be my death."

"If you don't go, it'll be your death right here, soldier. Maybe sooner than you think," as she unsheathed a long knife and pointed it directly at him.

Steven swallowed hard and said shakily, "Understood, Mira."

…

Steven rode silently, the only passenger in the shuttle. The skin behind his ear still stung with the implant of an organic radio. He could communicate directly with the Sixers. It was one of the few things that still worked from the Phoenix Group, and since it was bio-electronic, it would never be detected by Terra Nova forces. It had been invented recently, being brought to Terra Nova by the invasion force, specifically to fool any bio scanner that Dr. Elisabeth Taylor might have to search suspected spies.

The shuttle alighted just over the horizon from the colony's detectors, and carried no temporal equipment, so it wouldn't set off any early warning devices that sensed time travel equipment. Steven reluctantly stepped off the gangplank of the shuttle, hefted his back pack, and grasped his hand pistol. He sighed at the inadequacy of the weapon, but Mira could not spare an electric rifle, even on him.

After a long trek, he appeared in the open cultivated fields of Terra Nova about dinner time. All the field workers were back in the compound as required before dusk.

But the ever-vigilant defense forces of Terra Nova scanned every inch of the perimeter of the colony. Despite Mira's assumption of complacency, Terra Nova never let its guard down. Those communications were deceptions to prying ears.


	11. Chapter 11 - Prodigal Son

**Chapter 11 **

….

Dinner time always was relaxed for Mark and Maddy and baby Aaron. They were on the porch outside their residence nearby to her parents. Their nearly year-old child was nursing at his mother's breast and was falling into his typical milk coma, and would nap while the young couple had dinner. Younger sister Zoe was fascinated watching her sister nurse. Maddy was discrete in public, but she wasn't ashamed to let Zoe observe thoroughly for her to learn too when her time came to be a mother. Passersby said hello to the young couple and their baby, fawning over the handsome little man with his jet black hair and complexion that matched his mother's healthy mocha tone. Infants were still pretty rare in the colony. Nursing was even rarer in the 22nd Century, but Elisabeth had raised her children the same way, especially when they were hiding Zoe's existence, and Maddy respected her mother's customs. If a doctor nursed her children, then it must really be important for the child to do so.

Skye and Josh were chatting with the young family. Not only were they related now, they were close friends. There weren't many twenty-something's in the colony.

"He sure likes that, Maddy," Skye said amusedly at Aaron's gusto at nursing with Maddy.

"And it's good for him too. Mom says he gets all sorts of immunities from me," Maddy said proudly.

"It's a little old-fashioned, Maddy," kidded Josh as he watched his sister and his nephew.

"It's not you doing the nursing, dude. And besides you shouldn't be staring at your sister's boobs," scolded Skye.

"Can I stare at yours instead?" Josh laughed.

Skye grimaced, smacked her husband, and they all laughed.

Mark asked, "Seriously, guys, when are you gonna have a baby? Aaron is a great kid once you get past the sleepless nights and stinky diapers."

"Sleepless for who, Sargeant? You aren't the one feeding him," Maddy grinned and nudged Mark.

Josh thought about it all for a moment and joked, "When we both grow up and become 'serious'."

Josh put his arm around Skye and she leaned into him, "Besides, we still just like being 'us' for now. The 'practicing' is nice, though. And, one of these days we might just surprise the family."

"Well, Josh, we are older than them. Wanna go practice now and see what happens?" Skye winked at her husband. It was clear Skye had her own ideas about the timing for their babies.

Previous discussions on the subject of children all ended up with Josh pushing back a bit, but this time he said, "Sure, Skye."

The pair stood and held hands, said goodbye, and went to their flat.

Mark and Maddy turned to each other, and Maddy snickered a bit, "Well this is going to be interesting. The two of them – especially my brother – trying to become responsible parents."

"Poor kid," shot back Mark and they both laughed heartily. Mark put his arm tighter around the two people he loved the most.

….

A crackle over the radio went from the outpost reconnoitering the fields to the command post, "Sergeant, we have an intruder."

Mark heard the alert as he watched the mother-and-son bonding, and looked at his young wife.

Mark keyed the microphone, "Reynolds here. Acknowledged. Be there soon."

Maddy knew the drill. He was the sergeant, and always on call, so she winked and dismissed him to his duties, and demanded, "Mark, be careful."

He gave his wife a kiss, "You know I will, I'm just like your father, I always come back to you."

"Be sure that you do!" she grinned.

He arrived at the guard town just as they put the intruder's image on a long range scanner. The figure was disheveled but clearly a Sixer. He had his hands behind his head, and approached the main gate slowly. Mark raised an eyebrow and stared at the approaching intruder.

He punched his comm line to his wife, "Maddy. I think you know this guy."

"On my way," she said as she buttoned up and quickly walked the distance to her parents' home.

She wasn't going to interrupt her brother and Skye, as the happy noises next door were getting pretty loud, as it always did. Jim and Elisabeth were just reading, Maddy asked urgently, "Mom. Dad. Mark needs me. A Sixer I know is approaching the colony. Can you watch Aaron awhile, Mom?"

"Gladly, dear," and she reached for Aaron and cuddled her first grandchild. He smiled at her, knowing his grandmother well.

Maddy and her father Jim rushed to the gate. The intruder had stopped about 150 feet short of the gate. Just outside of the 'kill zone'.

"Steven…," she whispered.

Taylor stood by her and asked, "Sergeant Reynolds says you know this individual. Is he dangerous?"

"He wasn't five years ago."

"That's a long time around here," Jim sighed.

"Put her on the bullhorn, Reynolds," ordered Taylor.

"Steven? Is that you?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes Maddy, it is."

"Why are you here? I thought you joined with the bad guys."

"That's all in your point of view, Maddy, but yes I was a Sixer."

"Was?"

"I had enough. They are dying. I thought I believed in their dream. I had a change of heart. They didn't want me. I was kind of hoping you would let me in. It's a long walk back."

"I…I think he means it," Commander.

"Scan him for any signs of bombs, Corporal."

With the elaborate sniffers and scanners, developed after the vest bomber came through on the last 'honest' pilgrimage that killed Kara and nearly Jim Shannon, the soldier said with confidence, "None sir."

Taylor cocked an eyebrow, and winced, but said, "I sure hope I am not making a big mistake here. Let him in."

The gate opened, with guns trained on the Sixer and the treeline for any sign of a massive Sixer attack force hiding there. As soon as he set foot in the compound he was frisked for weapons, and his bag searched. They only found the pistol and a long knife which the security forces confiscated.

Steven and Maddy stood before each other, and he said sheepishly, "Hi Maddy. It's been a long time."

"I'll say. You were my friend at school. But this place changes people. Why the change in heart, Steven? This seems a little odd you showing up alone after a thousand mile walk."

"People like you taught me to live off and love this land, but I got misled with the promise of riches back in 2149 by harvesting the planet. They'll never come back. I got tired of the 'superior' attitude of the Phoenix Group that we should strip this land and give nothing back. That's why the world of 2149 is almost dead. I think I finally learned. That kind of gets on your nerves, especially when you are starving and the dinosaurs and disease are killing what's left of your friends."

"Won't they come after you as a deserter?" Maddy questioned.

"They can barely make ends meet up there. I'll just be one less difficult mouth to feed," Steven answered.

"All I want to do is just live here, and be part of this society," Steven lied to Maddy convincingly.

"I…I trust you."

Steven internally sighed with relief at his subterfuge, "Thank you Maddy."

He reached to hug her, but she only extended a handshake.

"You get a hug if you prove yourself trustworthy," Maddy challenged her old school friend.

"I'll earn that, Maddy," Steven responded.

Her reluctance to embrace was due to her worry about a hidden knife blade to her gut from a grown up Steven whom she had not seen in years, "That's going to take some time, Steven."

A sixteen year old naïve Maddy would have hugged an old friend without thinking twice. But at 21, she shook her head just a bit, thinking about how jaded she had become after five years in this harsh world.

"I will take you up on that promise," Maddy said with hope.

She requested, "Steven, you'll have to come with me. My Mom will have to take a full body scan to make sure you aren't bringing some kind of plague in here, and that you don't have any high tech surveillance implants. Or explosives."

After thirty minutes, Elisabeth looked at the readings on her scanner, and said, "He's clean, Maddy. I think your friend is everything he said he was."

"OK, thanks Mom. Steven, let's get you something to eat, and then find you a room. You look hungry, and like you've been sleeping in trees for months."

"Thank you Maddy. Years actually," he smiled and she dared smile back.

As they walked back to Maddy's and Mark's home for a meal, Steven had his first pang of guilt in lying to his old classmate. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.


	12. Chapter 12 - Travelers

**Chapter 12 - Travelers**

After a hearty meal that he hadn't had since he left Terra Nova with the exiled Sixers, and was established in temporary quarters, Steven secretly radioed to Mira's staff that he had established contact with and been accepted by the Terra Novans, all because of Maddy's former friendship.

With each day, the colonists embraced their returning prodigal son. He interacted with other old friends and their parents. It made it harder to remember that he was here to betray them all for Sixers' takeover plans. But he put it out of his mind - now it was all a matter of time.

Time was something that Mira was worried that the Sixers and Phoenix Group didn't have much of. Whatever mostly intelligent things were out there were systematically taking things they couldn't do without. She needed to proceed with her plan soon. She started to gather her team to head south.

….

Despite all the positive outward signs, Taylor remained skeptical of Steven, and chatted with Jim, "Do you have the same feeling about Steven as I do, Jim?"

"Yeah. I'm with you. Policeman's hunch. Something isn't quite right about that boy."

"Well he needs to earn his keep," observed Taylor.

"I wouldn't put him near anything sensitive. And far away from any weapons."

"You got that right, Jim. Farm worker?"

"Yeah. It's tough, grueling work, and we can keep an eye on him. If he's legit, he'll prove himself there. If not, well we just caught ourselves a Sixer infiltrator. And a bargaining chip."

While Jim and Taylor directed their security teams to watch Steve carefully, he soon found himself to the family gatherings of the extended Shannon family by Maddy. He seemed to hit it off with Aaron, like a big brother. To some extent Josh was a bit jealous about how easily Steven and Aaron took to each other.

From the shadows of Terra Nova, another pair of watchful eyes were interested in Steven's movements too, eyes that were neither security nor family.

….

Nights were never easy in the Badlands. While seemingly peaceful with insects clicking and proto-birds chirping and the occasional screams of the microraptors and ancestral mammalian creatures, Mira always had a guard watching over the encampment. Since there were mostly only grasslands and scrub trees, the Sixer/Phoenix Group stragglers had to create an earth fortification, with a barrier fence made from rocks and what little wood they could scavenge. It tilted out from its foundation, much an anti-squirrel shield on a bird feeder, only a thousand times bigger. It kept all but the most determined microraptors out. They made trench in front of the barrier, which was laced with sharp stakes.

It was an uneasy existence nonetheless for the exiles. It was totally unlike Terra Nova as an armed camp, not a real society, with none of the amenities, and even more sparse than the Sixer camp they had near the colony years ago. There were no children, little leisure time, and no enjoyment of arts or science. They were a stagnant and decaying society.

That was at the heart of Mira's drive to get back to Terra Nova and take over, and try to reestablish 2149 life styles as near as they could. Whereas the colonists embraced being close to nature, and being good stewards of the world they had been fortunate enough to have inherited for a second chance, the Sixers and Phoenix Group, like the dying world millions of years in the future, wanted to conquer and subdue nature, and control or eliminate the population of Terra Nova that they wished to rule. They had learned nothing and didn't care, and only longed for the technology and artificial environments they craved. And the people they missed. While most of the Phoenix Group had come single, many had significant others they that they left behind. The Sixers only had each other, and while not quite a family, they were making do. Mira never had a waking moment that she didn't need or want Sienna, and that drove her to a degree like no other of the exiles.

But tonight she was so exhausted she slept well, knowing her colleagues keep the watch.

She dozed peacefully until a sound not heard for centuries in 2149 rang out over the steppes. The sound of a cannon. The projectile smashed through the simple wooden barrier ringing the camp. Then another and another cannon shot echoed. The unmistakable sound of .50 caliber machine gun fire splintered the fence and bullets ripped through the camp, taking out the standing guards. Everyone woke with a start, including Mira, fearing an attack from the Terra Novas. But there were no sounds of electronic weapons. This was all kinetic fire. Then a wall of fiery arrows soared into the sky and arched back down into the camp, lighting anything combustible on fire. It was a scramble to squelch the flames.

Mira had no idea what was going on, but she did have one ace up her sleeve if things got uncontrollable. Crawling below the line of machine gun fire, and dodging barrages of flaming arrows, she moved on her belly to the transport. Fortunately it was well-armored, and the cannon shots, bullets, and arrows simply bounced off its tough exterior.

"Stafford, meet me at the shuttle, now!" yelled Mira to her chief pilot over their comm links. Stafford didn't respond.

A few yards later, she found out why. Col. Stafford had a flaming arrow stuck in the middle of his chest, still burning, his eyes locked forever in searing pain.

She grimaced, and keyed the mike again, and yelled, "Chen, meet me at the shuttle. Stay low. Watch the arrows. Stafford is gone."

"Understood, Mira. Out."

The cannons, heavy machine guns, and arrows were chewing up their makeshift outpost, but she still had technology on her side, if only she could live to get inside the shuttle. She could hear the sound of her own forces' electronic weapons going off in response, but it seemed the ancient weapons used against them were not subsiding in the slightest.

Chen and she met almost simultaneously at the hatch to the shuttle, and crawled inside. They buttoned up the shuttle, powered it on, and rose about 200 feet into the air.

"Punch the Area Stun, Chen," she ordered.

"Gladly, Mira. Can I put it on full force?" the second best pilot in her team asked.

"No," she demanded sternly, "I must survivors. I need to know who is attacking us. We need to make them talk."

"Understood," Chen responded.

He adjusted the stun weapon's setting on the weapons panel of the shuttle, prayed that it was still functional unlike the laser offensive weapons, powered it up, and pushed the 'engage' button. Instantly all the cannons, guns, and arrows ringing their camp stopped.

Mira punched the loud-speaker so the entire camp could hear, "I need every one of our attackers alive, bound, and gagged, and brought before me at the center of the camp. Now. The stun will only last a half hour on humans. If they are human."

Flanked by Sixers and Phoenix group sentries at electronic rifle gunpoint, the prisoners were sitting with their hands bound behind them, with blindfolds and gags, cross-legged before Mira and her top commanders. Her forces had captured about fifty combatants. It was impossible but true. Humans from earth's distant past had somehow survived the trip through the erratic time singularity of the Bermuda Triangle and were living in the Badlands.

They sat with their backs ramrod straight, eyes defiant, but completely immobilized, and were like no other humans she'd ever seen. They were an odd mix of grizzled, dirty, and scarred men and women, some missing teeth, or eyes, or pieces of ears, and many had ugly gashes on their cheeks or heads. They wore a strange assortment of bandanas, three corner hats, baseball caps of teams long since disappeared, 18th century double-breasted military jackets from several different countries of the great age of exploration, leather pilot's helmets and uniforms from the US military of the 1940's and 1950's, soiled and torn tourist style Hawaiian tropical shirts, airline uniforms, cruise ship stewards and crew clothing, and t-shirts with rock bands.

In this group of fifty captives were 18th century Caribbean pirates and treasure seekers, native Americans from Columbus' time wearing only breech cloths, 17th century African-Americans who were freed from the abominable 'human trade' days of history, 19th Century merchant mariners, 20th Century US army and Navy and airline pilots, and 21st Century cruise ship tourists and Navy sailors. Standing with them were child warriors as tough as any of her men. It was like a Halloween costume party gone bad. Only this was reality.

And much more deadly. It had taken everything Mira had to subdue these fighters and their ferocity only through advanced technology. Even with the Phoenix Group's advanced technology weapons arrayed against this ragtag band, they barely won. They had disarmed this motley array of warriors, and the pile of weapons was piled nearby: simple knives, spears, and sabers, bows and arrows, war axes, and an amazing collection of guns - flintlocks, Springfields, M1's and M16's, Colt .45's, and everything in between. There even a couple of ship borne pintle-mounted and 8 pounder cannons and very early versions of the electric rifles the Sixers and Phoenix Group had now. The Badlands survivors had killed six of her people, including her best pilot, and severely wounded another eight. She considered herself lucky it had been that few.

"So, who of you is in charge, and would like to explain this needless attack?" demanded Mira as she paced before her prisoners in total command. Mira at her peak of anger was intimidating, even to her attackers, as her subordinates noted.

"Ahoy, there, Trav'lers," said the one in charge.

"Travelers?" puzzled Mira.

"Aye, mum. Trav'lers through time we all be, eh? All stuck in this hellhole."

"That we are," Mira admitted.

"Now just what can ye offer us and we offer ye, now mum, that we all survive, eh?" grinned the pirate with an evil smile.

"What makes you think you have anything of value to me….uh…"

"Captain Becket at your service, mum. Ye are from the future beyond all of us here. We've seen your flying ship. It soars like the pilots here with ye from Torpedo 8 and that 747. Yet as big as an island. More powerful than a fleet of battleships and Men O'War of my days combined. Bigger than the Cruise Ship Journey and the USS Binghamton and SS Commerce. So where is it when we need it now, eh?"

Mira had seen the wrecks of all those ships he mentioned and World War II planes and airliners in the desert. Obviously there were survivors from all of those wrecks that created this odd mix of these people. But how many were there?

"Sadly that ship is no more. Like the wrecks in the desert," Mira stated truthfully, to bargain with them and gain some trust.

The pirate leader acknowledged that she understood their origins, "Scuttled by the islanders from the south, I don't suppose?"

"How do you know that?" asked Mira in disbelief.

"We hear ye talk, mum," Captain Becket said with pride.

"That would require you to be in our camp!" She was shocked.

"Aye," the pirate leader said with conviction, "We can talk over some rum about how we do that without ye seeing us, mum."

"Or a beer. Some of us are former Navy SEALs," said the man in a disheveled Naval aviator's uniform. Somehow he looked out of place in a beard, long hair, a slash on one cheek, a pierced ear lobe, and gold bling.

Mira was impressed that humans over three centuries thrown together in a savage dinosaur world could even cooperate. But she remembered that the Sixers and Phoenix group had learned to live together to survive. And as the only humans in this world until she and her forces arrived, the only way to exist for these people was to get along, no matter how different they all were.

"And we're really good at deception," with no warning Captain Becket lunged forth at her, and smashed a completely hidden ten inch knife through the table between her fingers. The Sixer guards tackled Becket to the ground, with an electric rifle pressed against his forehead. A bead of sweat dropped from Mira's temple. The pirate noted her discomfort; he ignored the rifle and cracked a satisfied grin that he surprised them so easily. Everyone knew he could have killed Mira effortlessly. He made his point.

Mira stayed the guards ready to fire, "Hold, soldiers. I would ask all of you 'Travelers' to remove your hidden weapons or we will kill you all right now."

Captain Becket motioned to his people. They all laid their hidden weapons on the makeshift tables. It was a huge pile of bladed weapons and a few ancient derringer pistols. Mira's commanders were incredulous at the capabilities of these people, centuries behind them in technology. The cunning of humans no matter what time they were from was impressive.

Mira tried to stay calm as she said, "So let me get this straight. You've all been here less than twenty five years, and yet you're from three – maybe four - different centuries."

"Aye. The Spirit of Darkness plucked us from all over the past and brought us all here together for the Devil knows what. And now ye too, all from the future far beyond us."

Captain Becket's eyes twinkled as he put forth his demands, "Here's the deal, mum. Ye need us to snuff the Terra Novans. Ye can't do that without us. There are a lot of us. A lot more than ye think, m'dear. We want what ye all want. To live like royals in Terra Nova with them Terra Novans dead or exiled outside like we've been. Let them be snacks for all the beasties. Get a taste of their own medicine, eh? "

"What makes you think I'll trust you to not slash our throats if I let you join us?" Mira asked, trying desperately to maintain the upper hand with these ancient people.

Becket explained, "Ye do have the advantage; ye know where they live, mum. And ye can run all the magical machines we hear makes Terra Nova their Paradise Island."

"So what's your price of helping us defeat the colonists? A treasure?" inquired Mira.

"Gold's worth nothing here, mum. It's only us, ye, and them. After we slit their throats, when we're all living high at Terra Nova and sipping rum, we want to share power with ye all, 'Cap'n' Mira. Pillage this place with all the treasures in the earth, and get really rich with your friends in the future."

"And if I don't agree?" Mira snarled.

"Well, we take ye future Trav'lers out one by one night after night here in the Badlands, steal your maps, and we take over Terra Nova. In our own way."

"What makes you think you can defeat all our advanced weapons? Or theirs," puzzled Mira

"Ye just barely did it. We were just hardly trying. Just to test ye. And most of the Travelers stayed home just watchin' ye and how ye fight. We have people who would give up their lives killing everyone here for a better life. Ye got anyone like that? I think ye don't have the heart for it."

Mira knew they had a point as she thought, _"Dying for money that 2149 promised us was the only cause the Phoenix Group and my Sixers cared about."_

Mira thought really hard, but observed, "Maybe with your help, we would have just the surprise we need - from men of the past."

"Aye, mum. That you do, and we are at your service," Captain Becket bowed graciously.

"Let's get this straight, _Captain_. And Colonel," Mira emphasized to the World War II and Vietnam era vets, "Until this raid is over, _I'm_ in charge here, and you'll get what you want – sharing power - only if you follow me. Got that? I have two centuries more intelligence than you. Especially against Terra Nova and the people who run it."

"Arrrr," the pirate growled, "I guess we have to do that, mum. Ye are a tough lass. But get this straight, no matter what time we're from, ye and the 'Novans all are men and women, so ye still die just as dead from a knife to the throat as in as my time. Ye may all be from the future but you're no better than we."

"Is that a threat?" Mira glared.

"No mum. A promise against your enemies. And now ours," Becket assured.

Mira began to think how she might use these people against the Terra Novans. Cannons, muskets, and rifles were all mechanical, not electronic. A cannon ball and a .45 and .50 caliber slug can't be jammed.

Mira knew she had to make this unholy alliance to take Terra Nova, "Captain Becket, I agree to your terms. Are you and your 'mates' with me?"

A chorus of ayes erupted.

Mira looked hard into the eye of the Captain, and he back to her, as she reached out her hand, "So have a deal, Captain Becket."


	13. Chapter 13 - Irreconcilable Conflicts

**Chapter 13 - Conflicts**

A few weeks went went by, and Steven was fully integrated into Terra Nova society. He understood the need for the Terra Novas to trust him only with menial jobs, and felt watchful eyes all around him. While it was backbreaking work in the relentless sun working in the crops, it felt very fulfilling to him. It was so much like old times, so he had to constantly remind himself of his mission here for the Sixers. He enjoyed the renewal of his friendship with Maddy, and the acceptance by her extended family, especially their little boy Aaron. Somehow he was able to enjoy those friendships but remain loyal to Mira and the purpose for him being planted here among them without a crisis of consciousness. Lying was far too easy for him. But fate is fickle, and one old-time memory smacked into him head-on as he rounded a corner of one of the merchants' square buildings. He knocked down a young woman about his age.

"Oh, Miss, I am so sorry. Here. Let me help you," he apologized profusely, and reached down to pick her up. They came face to face.

"Steven?" blushed the young woman.

Steven was very pleased to see her, but was even more embarrassed as he stammered, "Rebecca? _Rebecca!_ I've been here for _weeks._ It's not that big a place. How did I miss you?"

"I…I've been holding back, staying away from you on purpose. I had to make sure it was really you - inside and out," she said uncertainly.

Steven blurted out, remembering hurtful times of the past, "Shouldn't you be with _James?"_

Rebecca was surprised with Steven's terseness, but remembered parting on terrible terms five years ago, and so forgave him as she stammered, "Oh. Well. Umm. He died from the fever."

Steven felt terrible confronting her with that and apologized, "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

Rebecca interrupted, "Don't be. It was…umm…not going anywhere. We broke up before…well…" she welled up in tears.

He gripped her shoulders, and said, "It's OK. I'm still your friend."

"I…I didn't get much support. I came here all alone without my family. And I am_ still_ alone," she admitted hopefully.

Steven responded to that opening with a weak smile, "I don't have anyone either. Umm. Would you like to share some herbal tea together?"

"That would be nice," she smiled.

But they walked and chatted, he kept telling himself, _"Don't do this, he told himself, "Just do your job. Follow Mira's orders."_

But he went with her anyway. They got to Boylan's bar, and could not stop talking. Finally they got to open confessions.

Rebecca admitted, "After you left with those awful Sixers, I thought that was the end of our friendship, Steven. I…I've missed you a lot, and wondered about you ever since. It's a miracle. I didn't think I'd ever see you alive again."

While his brain was trying desperately to follow Mira's orders, his heart melted at seeing Rebecca, whom he had deep, but completely unrequited feelings for. Now the barriers were gone, with James dead, it was clear she still had interest in him. She had gotten prettier over the past five years.

Their reunion continued unabated until the bar closed. Steven touched his hand against hers. She didn't pull away. They interlaced fingers, and looked at each other.

"Is that OK?" Steven asked sheepishly.

"Yes, Steven, it's _very_ OK," he answered, smiled. She squeezed his hand affectionately.

Steven spoke softly, "I also have an admission, Rebecca. We were close friends in school, and would have been closer except for…"

"James. Yes I know. I was spoken for, Maddy told me you liked me," she admitted.

"While that little tattle tale," laughed Steven.

"She never liked James. She thought that you and I were better together…oh I'm sorry, that's out of line."

"It's OK, Rebecca. So. Are you sure you don't have anyone now…after James?"

"Umm. No. You're kind of a hard act to follow," she encouraged.

He smiled upon hearing that. They stopped just outside her door, and held both hands tighter and stood face to face.

Steven asked boldly, "Can we be friends again, Rebecca? I'm not that different," he said the words even though he was mostly lying, trying desperately to remember his agreement with Mira.

He could never help himself around her. The pain of remembering that he actually left Terra Nova to forget about her - since she was going to be forever with James - was the real reason he left. He really never believed anything the Sixers believed about 2149. Now he was caught up in it all. He'd wanted to have all five years back in a 'do-over' now seeing Rebecca standing before him with eyes only for him.

They stood awkwardly, held out his hand, and he stammered, "Umm, well, Rebecca good ni-!"

She interrupted the simple good-bye by kissing him squarely long and hard on the lips. Her hands cupped his cheeks almost too hard with the intensity of her grip so that there was no doubt this was far beyond just two friends kissing. He shivered with the rush of electricity it generated in him.

"Good night, Steven," she grinned with conviction and an eagerness in her eyes that he knew meant she wanted to see him again. Soon.

"G'night Rebecca. I…I want to see you again… tomorrow."

"That would be nice. I could fix you dinner. I fry up a pretty mean Archaeopteryx. Tastes like chicken."

They laughed.

"I'd like that."

They kissed again, a lot deeper and longer, and Steven reluctantly let loose of their embrace and her hands at her door.

He walked back to his bunk with his head reeling in mixed strong emotions. About the mission. About himself. About Rebecca.

He pursed his lips and reminded himself as he thought, _"I have to do what I have to do. No matter what."_

He tapped his bio-radio implant and checked in with Mira, pushing the night with Rebecca behind him.

"When, Steven?"

"I think I'm ready to do what I need to do."

"Make it three more weeks, soldier. We have a surprise for them. We found out what really lives in the Badlands. We are on our way, now. Await my word."


	14. Chapter 14 - Lost Legacy

**Author's note: **For those who thought I forgot the title of this Terra Nova tale was "Mark and Maddy", with this chapter, I hope you all have some fun with this cute couple! :D

**Chapter 14 – Lost Legacy**

Maddy looked at the new monitor screens that she and Malcolm had developed to carefully survey the integrity of the temporal shield that covered Terra Nova and the vast volume that the time jammer protected them. They were making sure all the devices were aimed and tuned so that there were no gaps. The new system was an order of magnitude more sensitive than the original temporal jammer's sensors and extended the time jamming planet wide. They had a complete shield against 2149's intrusion. Her colonial school friend Rebecca was a technician charged with maintaining the integrity of the grid, and she grimaced as she fiddled with the new system, making sure everything was perfectly set.

Rebecca kept looking at something that was amiss on the grid, and warned, "There is an odd reading inside Quadrant 6. I've got it tuned as good as I can."

"Thanks, Rebecca," Maddy said, scrutinizing the readings with no resolution, and so turned and asked the Chief Scientist, "Malcolm, what do you make of that?"

"A temporal anomaly of a kind I've never seen, Maddy."

"Is there something wrong with our sensor net?" she postulated.

"No. Maddy. The jammers should never look like that. That is something generating its own signature," Malcolm reflected.

Maddy speculated, "Could it be Lucas' lost lab? Or another portal?"

"It must be. Or worse - an intruder from 2149 with a time travel device that can overcome our jamming. It's inside the perimeter."

"I sure hope that is not the case. We have to check this out," observed Maddy.

"There is only _one_ soldier on the planet who can protect you there," teased Rebecca.

Maddy grinned knowingly, "I can't imagine who. It's my mom's day off. I'll have to see if she'll watch Aaron."

Malcolm chuckled, "Do you really think 'grandma' will say no?"

…

Mark and Maddy rode together in an armored car toward Quadrant 6. They drove with purpose, as 'Maddy the scientist' and 'Mark the soldier', not as husband and wife. They knew what was already there, not realizing until now that there may be even more to the lost legacy and genius of Lucas Taylor. They stopped at the rocky cavern, with its beautiful falls, creek, ponds, and the imposing cliffs above. From their vantage point above the falls, they could see the equations that Lucas had scratched into the cliff walls to aggravate his father. Even to Maddy, who understood every cryptic line scrawling into the igneous rock, it looked like an alien race had left a trail on the cliff face.

This place held special significance to Mark and Maddy, not because it was a special place for them, but for three other couples. This was the place Skye and Josh admitted and first consummated their love for each other, where Taylor and Mira fought once nearly to the death, but established a truce to survive the natural threats in the area. It was also where Taylor and Washington had fallen for each other in their unexpected, accidental, and ultimately tragic 'second chance' love.

Maddy was focused on their task, out of communication with Terra Nova, due to the nature of the canyon and the radio-absorbing rock structure. Mark and Maddy were totally cut off from civilization here. Skye and Josh liked that immensely in their continuing private moments here together.

She pointed her probe toward the cliff's sheer face, "It's coming from in there. Behind the rocks. There must be a cave."

The sensor was directing them to cross the deepest part of the pool below the falls.

She shed her garments and plunged into the pool. Her beautiful dark skin, as always, completely distracted her husband, still standing on the shore. She still had a perfect figure, even after the birth of their first child together.

"Maddy? What are you doing?" asked Mark with a quirked eyebrow.

"Investigating a hunch. Are you coming with me?" she said seriously, ignoring the fact that she was totally nude.

Mark shook his head and did likewise, and dove into the pond and surfaced next to her. He kissed her, but she scolded, "Not now, Mark. We have a mission."

They searched the underwater segments of the cliffs, and found an opening. They surfaced, and spoke, "Mark, I think there is an underwater entrance here. My bet is that it's short, and there is a lab behind those rocks."

"If you are in the slightest trouble, we turn around and come back. Understood?" he ordered.

"Understood."

They took deep breaths, and dove underwater into the tunnel, and prayed for no booby traps. They surfaced quickly inside as Maddy predicted. They helped each other climb out, and were surrounded by electronics and cave walls full of equations. They were pretty sure that their presence had not triggered any defenses.

It was a treasure trove of temporal experiments, electronics, and tools. It seemed to be a smaller version of everything that was left of his secret forest lab that the Terra Novans assumed he had taken with him to the Badlands. Mark was dazzled by the many things he didn't understand, but Maddy was following one lead after another, carefully powering things up to assure there were no traps. Mark was also, however, dazzled by Maddy's body. It was not often that a scientist could be found doing research completely nude. He didn't interrupt her though.

Maddy's eyes lit up and she carefully examined a vest, "Mark look at this! This is one of his personal-sized temporal vests. Malcolm and I have to study this. And it's still working. That is what was acting like an anomaly on our new sensor grid. We never saw this because the old grid wasn't strong enough to detect it."

"Isn't this vest the way he bypassed the big clunky portals and appeared in the lab through personal time travel?" Mark recollected her retelling of the story, since he was defending the colony when Lucas' unexpected appearance in the Lab nearly ended her.

"Exactly. And it looks like there are parts for at least six vests. We have to get them out of here. How do you suppose he got the one out? They are not waterproof."

They explored the cave, and discovered a debris covered land entrance, but they didn't exit.

"We'll come back, but take everything through here."

Their discovery now complete, they let their guard down for a moment. She was simply too beautiful for him.

"Maddy…do you suppose calling an extraction team here could wait a little bit?" he stared at her in the center of the lab. Now she wasn't a scientist. She was his wife. And 'dressed' the way he liked her best. Her long brown hair was still wet, clung to her, and framed her lithe light brown bbody enticingly.

Maddy finally paid attention his stunning warrior's physique displayed uncovered before her, and it was very clear to Maddy that he was only concentrating on her, which broke her determination from her otherwise single-minded task to discover the explore everything about Lucas' lab. They were alone together, with no possibility of contact or interruption, almost for the first time in a year since Aaron's birth. She tried to keep her professional demeanor. But they were in no hurry, and there was no crisis or sense of urgency.

"Uhhh, Mark, we have to stay focused here," as she tried to unsuccessfully maintain her discipline of science over growing desire.

He kissed her. Flustered for but a moment, she gave in to her husband's advances, wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, and kissed him back.

She made a fabricated excuse and grinned, "Now that you mention it, the study of time travel is really….umm…timeless, Mark. Besides, I always did like a man _not_ in uniform... "

He smiled back with her intentionally lame pun, "I thought you might see it my way. Umm…Josh told me there is a beach across the pond."

"Oh? You and Josh are comparing your conquests, hmm?" but she urged him on by exclaiming, "Last one there is a rotten T. Rex egg. And those are really nasty."

They faked wrestling each other to get to the underwater tunnel first, laughing together, but Mark bowed, and invited, "Maddy, ladies first."

She raised and eyebrow, and shot back, "You just want to follow me so you have the best view swimming behind me."

"Busted," he smiled mischievously.

But knowing full well what Mark liked, she entered the water, and motioned him to follow, with a bit of a blush. She made sure to swim using the 'frog kick', so Mark would enjoy seeing her in the fullest as he followed. That only served to add to his desire. Which she wanted.

They exited the watery tunnel, and popped up in the pond. They wrapped up into a tight embrace with each other in the shallows, and kissed. She could feel his response.

"Can't wait?" she kidded.

"Well, no. Who needs a beach, anyway? And besides, it's your brother's beach."

With a mixture of heat from them and coolness of the water, they tangled up tightly into each other and loved each other as intensely as in their newlywed days. While they had resumed relations after Aaron's birth, it was never as private or relaxed as here in this idyllic place.

They kissed gently afterwards, "That was nice, Mark."

She sighed, "I suppose we should call Terra Nova and get all this stuff out of there."

"Let's swim a little while longer, Maddy, or are you in a big hurry?" he coaxed.

"OK," she agreed.

While they spent a while swimming, sliding together down the smooth natural rocky falls spillways, and splashed and threw mud balls at each other, they simply couldn't resist each other and fell together again on a soft pebbly edge of the stream.

As they held each other afterwards, she ran her fingers through his close cropped military style hair, feeling safe and warm in his strong arms, but warned, "Mark, we're not taking any precautions."

"I'm ready for a second child if you are, Maddy."

She grinned and pecked him, "That would be fine with me, Mark."

"We better get dressed and go," he sighed.

"Darn. I can see why Josh and Skye love this place."

Atop one of the cliffs, Mark sighed, and activated his radio, with Maddy holding him close, "Expedition 1 to base. We're done here. Have specimens."

"Roger, Expedition 1. Bringing assistance. It'll be about two hours. You OK with that?" responded the dispatcher.

"Acknowledged. Plenty to look at here," he noted as he switched off the comm link.

He eyed his bride slyly and she knew exactly that 'plenty to look at' was her.

"Wanna go for another swim?" he invited.

"I thought you'd never ask," she smiled enticingly.

It was a race to see who could peel their clothes off faster as they ran to the stream hand in hand.


	15. Chapter 15 - Mad(dy) Scientist

**Chapter 15 - Mad(dy) Scientist**

The following day, in the secure research lab, the Terra Nova scientific team began their careful study of three complete temporal vests and the parts of several others, and all the scientific papers and programs they found in the cave. It was staggering.

Malcolm winced, and leaned back in his chair, "Maddy, I can't believe the degree of miniaturization of this vest. If somehow this invention got in the hands of Lucas' friends in 2149, an entire army could come marching into the colony unseen at any time or place from any direction."

"Believe me I understand," said Maddy seriously, having been nearly the first victim of that ability for personal time travel of people anywhere at any time.

"I hate to be Dr. Doomsday here, but how do we know they haven't got hundreds of these, and that the jammer is the only thing holding the horde back?" Malcolm postulated.

On that somber note, Maddy sighed, "We don't."

Elisabeth was examining the biophysical aspects of the vest, and tried to break up their worries by saying, "Look at this."

"What, Mom…err…Dr. Shannon?" she teased.

"You can control this time vest by exact time and date, geographical location - which we already know - but it has a 'DNA search' function too."

Maddy and Malcolm got up and walked over to Elisabeth's station, fascinated by the implications, and asked, "So what does that mean?"

Elisabeth explained, "If you put a DNA sample of a person of any kind in this little chamber, you can transport anywhere in time to find someone at exactly where they are in the future, without actually knowing where they are. Lucas would have been able to go directly to his cronies wherever they were hidden. And come back."

Malcolm was impressed, "So you're saying, Elisabeth, is that Lucas' vests are the ultimate time travel machine. They can transport you anywhere you want to go at any time in history. The 'weapon' option of our time jammer can only send people to the future but only from our fixed location."

"Exactly. Let's pray that he never had a chance to use that function and took one of these other vests with him for their use. They could change history altogether," Malcolm said seriously.

Realizing that she meant that 2149 could make enough changes in time so that none of them and Terra Nova would ever exist, Maddy asked, "Mom, it looks to me that the vests will transport more than one person. When we sent Lucas into the far future, I almost got transported with him."

Elisabeth continued, "As long as you are physically holding someone, the temporal bubble will surround them and you can take them with you. And one more thing… check this out."

She unraveled an iridescent fiber optic cable, "Lucas' notes call this a 'TimeWire'. You can link more than one vest together and transport small groups."

"Or time travelling death squads. How are my favorite 'mad scientists' doing?" Taylor interjected coldly, walking in the Lab to see how their investigations were going.

Malcolm rolled his eyes at the Commander and tried to direct the commentary back to pure science, "Careful, Commander, or we'll turn you into a shrew."

"You guys really have to explain to me how this works. The portal on Hope Plaza took Megawatts of power to get people through time. This vest has a small battery."

Maddy explained, "Well Commander, it's sort of like a person using a sledge hammer to smash down a door and the whole wall it's built into instead of a single person sliding a door open a crack just wide enough for them to slip through. That's how it works."

"I get it. That's brilliant," Taylor realized, impressed with how easily Maddy Reynolds could make incomprehensible things seem simple.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but that was your _son's_ brilliance. We barely figured it out," Maddy observed sadly.

He sighed, and said in resignation, "If only that brilliance could have been used for good."

Malcolm changed the somber subject, "Well, people. I think we should test this. We especially need to make sure it works inside the time jammer shell."

"Yes but, but on who?" inquired Elisabeth nervously.

"How about _what_, first?" suggested Malcolm.

He draped a vest over a small lab rat's cage.

Malcolm instructed Maddy, "So, adjust it for five minutes ahead."

She punched the numbers on to the control pad, and pushed the 'Transport' button. The rat and the vest faded from sight with a slight glow.

They chattered anxiously for the next five minutes, and the lab test table acquired a glow, and the vest and the rat appeared as if they had never gone.

"Good," announced Malcolm.

"The obvious next test is: will it work on humans?" asked Elisabeth.

"I'll go," volunteered Maddy.

"You're not going anywhere, young lady," scolded her mother.

"I'm not 12 anymore, Mom," argued Maddy.

"But you are a wife and a mother, not to mention one of only two temporal sciences gurus here," warned Elisabeth.

Rebecca volunteered, "I'll go."

Maddy quirked an eyebrow at her friend and said, "Steven won't be happy if you end up in the Devonian Era permanently. Or worse – that you come back, but leave your leg in the Pliocene."

Rebecca narrowed her eyes, "We have to try. Someday we may have to travel elsewhere in time to save the colony."

They sat in silence, but Malcolm reluctantly agreed, "OK, Rebecca, but you know the risks."

"I accept that," she said seriously.

So she donned the vest with help from the others, set it for six minutes, and engaged the device. With a flash, she vanished from the present.

Exactly six minutes elapsed, and she reappeared, but with a horrified face and screaming. It was clear her left arm was missing. Elisabeth rushed to her aid, but Rebecca smirked, pushed her very healthy left arm that she hid within her blouse out through her sleeve, wiggled her fingers, and showed everyone she was all right with a huge grin.

Maddy was mad and amused at the same time at her friend, and said, as she narrowed her eyes after hugging her, "I am going to kill you, _personally."_

Mark had stepped into the Lab room at Taylor's request and quipped, "Oooh, I'm _so_ scared now. Maddy Reynolds: Time Scientist and Trained Killer."

Maddy shot back, "For _that_, Sergeant, you are sleeping on the couch tonight. And _you_ get all the middle of the night diaper changes!"

They all laughed heartily, knowing what they had accomplished that day. What Mark didn't realize is that Maddy was quite serious in her threat.


	16. Chapter 16 - Liar's Poker

**Chapter 16 – Liar's Poker**

The scientists built on their knowledge of the temporal vests' capabilities over subsequent days by linking the vests to time-transport larger groups of lab animals and other successful experiments. The one troublesome problem was that for any time transport back to 2149 – or any other combination of time and place not within Terra Nova's immediate perimeter, they would have to turn off the time jammer to let the vest take a person there and back for the length of time they were gone, otherwise they couldn't get back. That made everyone very uncomfortable to let their guard down for any extended time. They assumed that 2149 could sense the time jammer, so turning it off for any length time could invite a temporal attack. But that was a problem to solve later on.

They were worn out with all the work of the week, but they knew when to relax too. On the beginning of the weekend, Maddy and Mark knew they had a 'triple date' night with Steven and Rebecca as well as Josh and Skye.

After cleaning up a bit, they went to Rebecca's dwelling with young Aaron. While the delectable smells of dinner were in the air, it was clear that they had interrupted Steven and Rebecca sharing a little before dinner affection. Maddy was very pleased to see them together, and it was obvious they liked the arrangement, as they held each other's hands constantly and kissed a lot. Maddy and Mark had a good snicker at Steven's and Rebecca's awkwardness and looking a little disheveled as they answered the door. Josh and Skye joined up with them a few minutes later, and the young couples enjoyed each other's company immensely.

Dinner proceeded well. Steven had clearly displayed his culinary skills which matched his horticultural skills as a tireless field worker in the Terra Nova gardens. Aaron clearly enjoyed playing with and wearing the food more than eating it, and they all had a good chuckle over that.

At the end of the meal, Mark noted with satisfaction with a healthy belch, "Wow, Steven, that was awesome. I didn't realize a vegan food could be so tasty. No offense, Maddy," alluding to his wife's wonderful talents with Indian veggie dishes, most of which were not truly vegan.

"None taken. I know you're mostly a 'meatatarian', Mark," quipped Maddy to a round of snickers from their friends.

Steven was careful not to mention his 'past' Sixer existence explicitly to kill the mood, "Thanks Mark. Yeah, well, out there in the…um….wilderness, we didn't have much so we had to make do. It's amazing what the land provides if you give it half a chance."

Mark noted to everyone's general agreement, "So true. That's kind of what we were all here for originally."

Maddy couldn't resist the chance to tease the new 'couple', "Well, you guys developed some odd habits out there. We didn't expect to see you two having dessert _before_ dinner."

"Umm, well, we didn't have that kind of luxury out there," Steven kidded, but Rebecca still blushed. She leaned in quickly and pecked his cheek, and they all laughed.

A weird whistling sound broke the crickets' chirping in the night, followed by a flash and an explosion, quickly followed by three more. One was close. They all startled out of their seats and Aaron started to cry in his room.

"Omigosh," Rebecca yelled, "What was that?"

Mark said, "If didn't know better… I'd say it was a cannon."

More cannon shots rang out, followed by machine gun fire. Then a more familiar sound of electric rifle shots being returned. The Terra Nova defenses flared to life.

Mark's comm buzzed, "Sergeant - we're under attack."

"On my way."

"We _all_ have to go," said Skye seriously, knowing her place was at the clinic for casualties.

She could already hear screams of pain. Josh grabbed his EMT pack that he always had with him as a volunteer, and he and Skye exchanged worried glances, knowing he would be trying to triage the wounded on the streets and in their homes in the midst of an on-going attack. Everyone realized they had to rush to the Command Center, but looked at each other - who would protect Aaron?

Steven knew he was the fifth wheel and offered to help, "I'll watch him, unless you want me to go fight the Sixers with a pitchfork."

Mark said gravely as the gun fire and blazes started by flaming arrows began to take effect, "We might have to, Steven. This is a bad one. Someone is helping them."

Rebecca said, "I'm right with you, Maddy."

Maddy ordered, "Rebecca, you're staying here."

"You need me to keep the time jammer going," Rebecca begged. Another explosion rocked the apartment, with shrapnel whizzing through the roof. They all fell flat on the floor.

Maddy emphasized her order, "Keisha is already on duty. She'll do fine," and added grimly, "You're the best 'tech' we have. If we are hurt, someone has to know how to operate and repair the jammer."

Maddy left unsaid the implication that someone would have to take care of Aaron if they were killed and ordered her friends, "You three get to the bunker, now!"

Rebecca assured Maddy by saying softly, "We'll protect him."

Relieved with the promise, Mark, Maddy, Josh, and Skye exited the apartment and rushed to defend against this unexpected intense attack.

This was the very moment that Steve had infiltrated Terra Nova for. But he would have to lie to Rebecca to carry out his assignment, "I'll go get him."

"OK."

He went to the baby's room, scooped him up, unlatched the back window, hoping to escape with Rebecca not seeing them, and whispered, "Forgive me, Aaron."

Rebecca surprised Steven by asking from the doorway to Aaron's room, "Forgive you for what, Steven?"

Not being alone with Aaron was making a mess of everything. He had to think fast.

"Nothing. We…we have to go. We need to separate – one of us has to survive. We'll all get back together later."

Steven started to climb out of the window with the child cradled in his arms, who calmed at the touch of his 'big brother', but Rebecca grasped his arm, "No. You aren't going without me, Steven. Maddy is expecting all three of us to get to safety _together."_

They kept their heads low amidst explosions and fires and volleys of heavy weapons they had never seen or heard but in ancient videos.

She finally figured it out, and accused, "This is not the way to the bunker. Where are we going, Steven?"

"You'll see. Some place safer. It's the only way to make the fighting stop," He said coldly.

"Steven - what are you doing? You can't do this. I won't let you. These are our friends. This is their baby. You can't… _can't_ kidnap their child for the Sixers."

"I have to," Steven said sadly.

Rebecca shocked herself that she didn't argue with him more emphatically, "You are _still_ one of them, aren't you? You _lied_ to me all the time."

But then she pounded him hard, sobbing as they struggled to get closer to the edge of the colony.

Her hitting him hurt terribly in more ways than one. He struggled to subdue her, and while he wrestled with her, he pleaded with Rebecca while trying to keep a grip on Aaron, "I didn't lie about us. That love is real. Very real. I love you."

She stopped hitting him as he wiped her tears. They looked at each other, and she saw the truth in his eyes.

"But Steven. You're a bad guy. Dear God, I'm in _love_ with a _Sixer!_ Please don't do this."

"I…I'm not a Sixer any more. You kind of changed me."

"Not enough to stop you from doing this. You're still kidnapping Aaron for them."

"I'm doing this for a different reason now. To protect Aaron."

"I don't see how this is protecting him."

His organic radio crackled with Mira's voice, but Rebecca didn't hear it, "Did you do it, Steven? We're getting pummeled out here. I was about to send someone else. I thought you turned on me."

"I have Aaron," he said flatly. Rebecca's eyes went wide as she overheard his side of the conversation.

Rebecca realized what was happening and slapped him hard, "You have an organic radio implant. _That's_ how you stayed in touch with them."

She stopped him in their flight, ignoring the hails of bullets and volleys of arrows, and the explosions around them, "If you really love me and you really aren't one of them, you have to stop here first."

They were right next to the heavily armored Research Lab, she keyed the security codes as the battles still raged, and they went inside. She handed him an object. She demanded, "Take this. I have an idea."

Just has Steven finished concealing what Rebecca gave him, and they exited the building, a familiar young man appeared by their side and shoved a rifle in Steven's face, "I am here to make sure you get back to Mira. With the child."

"You! You're a waiter at Boylan's."

He snarled, "That's right, Steven. This is all about making sure you do your job and if you don't, I have orders from Mira to take the child and kill you where you stand. And your woman too, if she resists. I've seen the 'goo-goo' eyes you've been making with each other. You have a mission to do, _soldier."_

"And I intend to carry it out," but this time his words to the Sixer spy was a lie.

As they ran, Rebecca and Steven exchanged glances, and she completely understood what Steven meant by protecting Aaron. This spy would have no qualms about kidnapping or killing Aaron. Rebecca was reassured Steven was 'playing out' his orders, but not in the way Mira demanded. It was a dangerous chance to take, but she hoped she had given Steven the ability to protect them all.

The foursome raced out the back of Terra Nova, through the electric fence blown open by repeated cannon blasts, protected by a line of Sixer fire that kept the Terra Nova defenders heads' down. They could not see Steven, Rebecca, Aaron, and the Sixer escape into the woods, and the surveillance cameras in the Control Center were too damaged for Aaron's father Mark to see the kidnapping and escape.

….

The fighting was ferocious now, with the combined forces of the Phoenix Group, the Sixers, and the Travelers fully engaged with the outnumbered Terra Nova Security force. Sections of the fence were no longer electrified, or not operating at a lethal intensity. The broken fence had let a portion of the allied Sixer forces surge into the colony. Fighting became hand to hand. Fortunately Taylor and Mark Reynolds had kept their people trained to the peak of their combat edge, and with fully operational weapons. The colonists held their ground.

Twenty-second century martial arts overcame the fighting techniques of the pirates and their friends across the centuries - even the 20th Century Navy SEALS. None of them expected the Terra Novans to be good swordsmen, either. But the damage was severe, and there were casualties. A number of buildings were ablaze in the colony. Civilians huddled in shelters awaiting the outcome. The last time they did so, it did not turn out so well.

The battle raged on, but slowly each cannon and machine gun was silenced by Terra Novan security forces' snipers and some improvised long range electronic cannons that surprised Mira's people. The defensives of the camp were too sophisticated against the ancient kinetic weapons. The added brute force power of the Travelers added to the Phoenix Group's and Sixers' decaying weaponry was not enough against the discipline of the Terra Novans.

Taylor was just about to get the upper hand, when Mira's voice screamed across the Terra Nova comm link, "Jim Shannon. I have your grandchild. Tell Taylor to cease fire."

Maddy gasped. Mark broke off his fighting inside the colony to go to the flat and check.

In what seemed to be an eternity but was only seconds before Mark's comm squawked, "They do have him. Steven and Rebecca are gone."

Maddy pounded the desk, "Steven _was_ a traitor! How _foolish_ could we be to trust him with our child? This was planned all along."

Through their multi-spectral tele-binoculars that cut through the smoke of battle high on the Command Center platform, Taylor and Jim saw Steven with Aaron in his arms, standing far away by the tree line, next to Mira, who was gloating. The real shock was seeing Rebecca, who clutched Steven's arm like a vise.

Taylor gritted his teeth, and yelled across all the comm channels, "Cease fire. But hold your ground."

The deafening sounds of the battle quelled, with friend and foe standing across from one another, each ready for the next blow. It was clear Taylor had not ordered his people to lay down their weapons. At least not yet.

Taylor absolutely seethed in anger at seeing Steven as the kidnapper, much less Rebecca as an accomplice of some sort, and punched the secure channel on the comm, "I need a sniper rifle. Now! I will kill him myself where he stands. He lied the whole time. I knew I shouldn't have trusted him. And he corrupted Rebecca too."

He keyed the microphone to talk to Maddy on a secure line, "I'm so sorry, Maddy. I should have left your old friend out there to die months ago. He is no friend."

Taylor pursed his lips and took the sinister-looking long-barreled weapon from a soldier, shouldered it, and released the safety on the sniper rifle. He squinted through the multi-spectral sight. Mira had no idea that she was standing inside the lethal range of this special weapon they had hand-crafted in the colony.

Maddy pleaded over the secure link of the radio, "Don't be sorry, Commander. Please don't do this. We trusted him. He duped us all. That's my child; what if you miss? I think I know what they are doing, Commander, despite appearances. Look at this reading."

Taylor lowered the gun, looked at the graph she sent him on the sensor pad, and he quirked an eyebrow, "There's a chance they could fail, Maddy. Do you really trust_ traitors_ with the life of your child and the future of Terra Nova?"

"I know Commander. But without Steven and Rebecca, Aaron would be dead already. I _do_ trust them," she said with a grim realization.

Despite what she had just said and hoped for, Maddy was beside herself with fear, but tried to be the consummate emotionless scientist, and to believe that her trust in her friends was justified.

Realizing the Terra Novas merely stood down and didn't surrender, Mira demanded over the radio, "Order your people to drop their weapons. Turn Terra Nova over to us and our friends from the Badlands. We will give the child back to you."

Jim Shannon wondered what she meant by 'friends from the Badlands'. He feared the worst – that 2149 had broken through the jammer. It was not yet clear who these new fighters were. If so, all was lost.

Taylor bluffed, "And if we don't, Mira, then what?"

Mira stated with icy cold resolve, "We kill the child."

All the multi-spectral binoculars were trained on the Sixer leader, Steven, Rebecca, and Aaron. Three more snipers had their foreheads in their sights.

Commander Taylor stated gravely, "You know we can't do what you ask. Not for one child, Mira. Even Maddy and Mark Reynolds' child. The answer is '_no'."_

Mira yelled a thousand obscenities over the radio, and snarled at Steven, _"Finish_ the job."

"No," said Steven disdainfully.

"I _order_ you," she screamed.

"So we're baby murderers now, Mira?" he questioned.

"It's for our cause. One baby dies, or all of us do. That is a fair trade."

"I will not do this. You asked me to kidnap the child, not to murder him."

Mira warned, "Then I will get someone else to do the job. Over your body."

She turned to the Sixer infiltrator that had escorted them out of the colony, _"Kill_ Steven and the child, and his girl. We are done with this foolishness."

Before the spy could strike, Rebecca punched Steven's chest, clutched Steven and Aaron, and they shimmered and disappeared.

Mira was in total shock.

Maddy watched the temporal sensors spike, and calmly said, "Now!"

Malcolm engaged Terra Nova's own Area Stun weapon that had been disabled at the start of the fight. The Sixers, Phoenix Group, and the Travelers all dropped unconscious far back into the tree lines. Fighters inside the colony were disarmed by the Security team.


	17. Chapter 17 - Blessed are the Merciful

**Chapter 17 – Blessed are the Merciful**

When Mira came around, Jim Shannon was kneeling face to face with her, with her uncomfortably bound and gagged. He held a knife at her throat. A drop of sweat trickled down her temple.

Mira actually cringed at the lawman's angry stare, "You nearly took my grandchild's life. Tell me why I shouldn't take _yours?"_

She said coldly, "We had to get out of the Badlands or we would die. Not only us, but the other people we found."

Jim observed, "Yeah, we noticed. You have quite an interesting collection of 'friends.' Looks like a deal with the devil to me."

The captured and bound Travelers glared at Shannon, and squirmed, but to no avail.

Shannon stood and glowered at the captives, but Taylor interrupted his tirade by asking kindly, "That's enough, Jim. Calm down. I need to talk to Mira."

Jim reluctantly lowered his knife and backed away. Taylor and Mira had a stare down, and despite being tightly bound, she looked defiantly at the Terra Novan leader.

Taylor unexpectedly spoke reasonably. He was an expert fighter, but in his heart he was a man of peace, "This _has_ to stop Mira. We have to stop fighting each other. This is senseless. We all will die out here if we don't figure out how to live in peace."

"Give me a reason why, Taylor," Mira snapped.

"Why do you fight us, Mira?" Taylor calmly asked.

"You know we need a place to live safely while we are stuck here until 2149 returns. A real place. Your place. I am not sure what you call what we are doing but it is sure not living. It is barely existing. For over five years, Taylor. You have what we want. And we promised 2149 we will take Terra Nova. It's our price to get home or be reunited with the people we love. You people are all an inconvenience to us. You are surrounded by the people you love. You've somehow stopped 2149 from returning. You'd fight for that too if you were in our shoes."

Taylor planted the seeds of doubt, "Maybe your 'friends' stopped the invasion themselves. What if they never come back, Mira? What if civilization Earth is gone completely? It was on its last throes when we left. You are holding on to false hope from people who care as little about you as they do about us and the land. Right this very minute they may not even exist to come back and 'save' you. I think you expect too much of them."

Mira chafed and considered what Taylor suggested, said nothing, but worried for the first time that Taylor could be right. Their supporters may have been arrested, or simply given up. It was not a cheap operation to rob the earth's riches from an alternate past to serve the future. Shannon's sabotage five years ago of the main complex and time travel system set them back years. Lucas' last battle appeared ended disastrously a year ago. And tonight, they were just defeated again. They were isolated, with no promise to be saved any time soon, or ever.

Taylor saw the doubt and bored in, "Would you stop attacking us if you had a real place to stay?"

Mira sneered, "We'll never live together with you here in Terra Nova. The way you live is just too different. We are enemies."

Taylor saw he had the upper hand in the exasperated look Mira gave him, "What if we gave you a different place than Terra Nova?"

Mira scoffed, "There is not another place to give us."

Shannon swallowed hard, hoping Taylor would not give away the secret Outpost B, just to have an uneasy peace that could turn into war in a heartbeat if 2149 returned.

Taylor explained, "Suppose we give you enough spare parts of Terra Nova that were supposed to be used to expand the colony with the other pilgrimages that will now never come? You can build your own version of Terra Nova."

Mira's jaw dropped, "Spare parts? You'd just _give _us a place?"

Taylor didn't blink, "Including a small reactor for power, and a way to make meds. We would agree treat your people's major illnesses at the clinic."

Elisabeth almost objected, but Jim held her back.

Mira was highly skeptical, "Why do we deserve your generosity? We've done nothing to earn this. We've fought you every step of the way."

Taylor kept calm, "Because we are people of peace. That is what we do. That's why Terra Nova is supposed to exist. That is the way of this world that is lost on 2149. Maybe you could learn that too."

Mira snorted, "Not likely, Taylor. We don't believe in your psycho-religious mumbo jumbo. What's your price? _Everyone_ has a price."

Taylor sighed and asked, "Leave us alone from now on. Plus, I want to count on you to bargain on our behalf to just leave us alone if 2149 ever does come back."

"So long as Sienna and I are separated and stuck here, I will always side with them against you. Are you gonna take back your offer now?" Mira sneered, expecting what was clearly a hollow deal to get yanked back.

She could not believe the words Taylor spoke, "What if we had a way to get you and Sienna back together?"

Mira staggered and spat, "You're _lying."_

"Try me."

"How?"

Taylor directed her attention to Jim, "Tell her, Officer Shannon."

Despite his anger at Mira for endangering his grandson, because he understood the importance of children to their parents, Jim asked, "Are you ready to go get Sienna? I will take you there personally."

She laughed, "Do you really believe that you - Terra Nova's top policeman, a convicted population control felon and jail escapee in 2149 - is going to walk me right into the future?"

Jim smirked, "I've travelled through time before, if you recall."

Mira screamed, "How can I forget? Because of you the way here and the way home is destroyed, and all my contact with my daughter is gone. You trust me to believe you we can just waltz in and bring her back 'just like that'?"

"I have a personal time portal," and he removed his jacket to show her.

"A what?" she puzzled.

"A time travel vest. I can take you to 2149 to get Sienna, and come back. Just like that," he assured her.

"Even I don't know where in 2149 she is. They'll never tell me where she is, much less you. That's their price tag to get me to do everything they want for them. This is ridiculous. Let us all go and let us rot in the jungle. Maybe you'll get lucky next time and put a bullet through me and end this misery."

Jim ignored her ranting, "This vest will take her directly to her. Are you ready to go?"

"You're really serious aren't you?" she said somewhat hopefully.

All heads nodded affirmative.

Jim asked, "Do you have anything with her DNA?"

"Uh… strands of her hair in a locket I've worn since the day I left."

Jim noted, "Put one in the chamber and it will find her anywhere in time. We go, grab her, and come back."

Mira fretted, "At age 7 or 12? I shudder to think what kind of girl my leaders have brainwashed her into after five years."

"I don't honestly know, Mira. If she's as headstrong as her mother, I don't think there's going to be much brainwashing going on. Do you want her or not - no matter what age?" questioned Jim kindly.

She stalled, her head reeling with this possibility, "What if I want to stay in that time? I could rat on everything you have here to defend against them. That's worth real money."

Jim sighed at her continued embattled behavior and lack of trust, "That you could, Mira. But you think after three expensive, destructive, death-filled failures you'd be allowed to live in 2149 by your leaders? You're only good to them so long as you are here."

Mira understood, "Point, Taylor. You sure are right about that… OK, I agree."

Taylor interjected, "There's a price."

"I knew it," she scoffed.

"If they do come back, I want you to pretend to be on their side to buy time for us, alert us, and then help us fight them."

Mira didn't flatly refuse this time, "I don't know, Taylor. They'll surely kill us if we betray them. These are not nice people, if you didn't know."

"You'll die one by one in the jungle if you don't. We've won three times now. Decisively. I kinda like our odds."

She winced and cocked her head, "'Hard to argue with that, Taylor."

"Do you want Sienna? That's my price."

"Deal, Taylor."

Her people couldn't believe it. But they too knew their chances at survival were zero without the deal.

"One more thing - you have to build within 200 klicks of here - that's the best our logistics will easily support and resupply you," Taylor requested, knowing that to prevent them from contacting or being contacted by 2149, they had to build then new base within the strongest effect of the new time jammer.

"Take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," wondering if she traded one deal with the devil with the Travelers for another with Taylor.


	18. Chapter 18 - Day Trips

**Chapter 18 - Day Trips**

"So Mira, are you ready?" Jim powered up the vest and opened his arms to hold Mira close so that the temporal field would surround her too.

"I guess so. I just wish we didn't have to be close together, Shannon."

"This is no Sunday picnic for me either, Mira. But we have to do what we have to do. How do I know you won't stick a knife in my ribs?" he checked his electronic gun, keyed only to fire on his fingerprints, lest Mira try to take it from him.

"You don't. I guess you have to trust me as much as I will you."

….

Maddy announced, "Dad, the temporal jammer is disabled. You are safe to transport out."

"Please be fast, Jim. And come back to me," fretted Elisabeth.

"Got it." and kissed her deeply enough to cause his daughter to blush. Mira nearly gagged at their affection.

"I always do," Jim teased and winked at his bride.

He punched the 'Transport' button.

They shimmered out of the lab, and appeared in dark, sparse apartment. Debris was everywhere. The air was rancid, and barely breathable, and they were there without filters. They were clearly in 2149, or more accurately 2154. They had at best an hour before being dulled by the poisons in the air. There were voices in another room next to the one they materialized into. Those voices were arguing. But she could hear Sienna crying. A mother can always tell the sound of their own child. Between sobs, Sienna was talking with adults. It was the voice of a pre-teen, not a little girl. Jim and Mira waited silently trying to understand what was going on.

Sienna was pleading, _"Why_ are you still keeping me? You can't talk to anyone there anymore. The way back there is gone. Let me go home to my Grandma. You don't need me. My Mom can't help you. Let all those poor people and their families live in peace."

One of the thugs holding her growled, "We're not done trying to contact her. Now you be a good little hostage and mind us. You are still our insurance policy to get her to obey us."

"Am I going to have to mind you my whole life? I _hate_ you," cried Sienna.

Her captor gave her an evil grin and said condescendingly, "There, there, Sienna, that's no way to treat people who feed you and give you clothes and let you play video games."

"And nothing else. I haven't seen a friend in five years. I haven't been outside this house in three."

"We don't care Sienna. Do you think we like being a babysitter to a brat like you? They pay us and that's it."

Another looked her dead in the eye, "Look here Missy, if they paid us to kill you instead of keep you, I wouldn't hesitate a minute to slit your throat. And you're lucky we haven't done things to you we do to older female hostages."

Sienna buried her head in her hands and cried more.

Mira bristled at that vicious threat to her daughter, but Shannon held her back and whispered, "Are you ready, Mira? We will only have moments. I think there are three of them."

Shannon drew his weapon, set it on area stun, and nodded to Mira. They rounded the corner of the room to where everyone was.

"Let my little girl go!" She shouted.

"Mira! How? Who?"

"Mom!" cried Sienna and she rushed and hugged her mother. There was mass confusion among her captors, not ever expecting Mira to come to them. Before the thugs could draw their weapons, Shannon stunned them all where they stood. He punched the "Return" button on the vest. They shimmered out of existence from the future.

They returned almost as quickly as they had left, and Maddy quickly reestablished the temporal jammer. An extremely tearful Mira hugged her little girl tightly, who was now sobbing uncontrollably in relief and release from five years of being held captive. There was so much for mother and daughter to discuss.

Mira looked up, and barely whispered sincerely, realizing what she had lost for so long was in her arms again, and the selflessness of the Terra Novan leaders to reunite them, despite all her years of battle and threats. She choked out her appreciation, "Shannon. Taylor. I never thought I would say this…but…_thank you."_

"Do we still have deal?"

"Yes. I swear it."

Taylor turned to his Chief of Security, "Let her go. Release all these others too. See to it the Sixers, Phoenix Group, and Travelers get the supplies and materials, load their transport and vehicles. I promised to build them a home. And give them enough weapons to defend themselves."

"Sir?" asked his Chief in disbelief.

"We made a promise. I intend to _honor_ it. Do it now."

"Yes sir."

Mira and Sienna were led off by the Chief and the details began for a new permanent outpost on ancient Earth. Sienna was ecstatic to be back with her mother, and she understood something really important was happening and was patient, and that these people were different, but held on to her mother tightly.

That was all that the pirate leader needed to convince him of what he needed. Captain Becket indicated he wanted his say, too. Mark carefully removed Becket's gag first of all the Travelers, but was ready for any false move.

"Much obliged soldier," he bowed, and said grandiously, "Captain Becket at your service, Commodore Taylor. I might say, sir, that ye are a man who drives a hard, but fair bargain. And ye are a man of his word, as are yer people."

_"'__Commodore…',"_ scoffed Taylor to himself. That had a nice ring to it though, so he didn't correct the ancient pirate.

Jim Shannon stifled himself at the mispronunciation of the term Commander for 'Commodore'. Taylor shot him a look that could choke a Rex.

"The only service I want, Captain Becket, is for you 'Travelers' to make sure you follow my request of Mira to end of your pillage of Terra Nova, and to live in peace in the new facility," Taylor reminded him

"Aye that, Commodore Taylor. If'n Mira's girl can come here with your time magic, can you get us Trav'lers back to where we come from? If'n we aren't here, we can't fight ye anymore."

That had a certain logic to Taylor, and looked to his senior scientist for concurrence, and getting a nod from Malcolm, he answered confidently, "Yes, we can."

"Well then, Commodore, we have a deal. If you'll be so kind as to release my hands, we'll shake on it," smiled the grateful pirate.

At that moment, a shimmer appeared next to them all. It was Rebecca, Steven, and Aaron. The current time caught up with their short time shift into the future to escape Mira, and they had used their time to walk back into camp.

"Is it time yet?" asked Steven meekly.

Maddy rushed from her Command Center console seat, tore Aaron from Steven's arms, gave him an angry scowl, and slapped him hard. It raised a welt.

_"__That_ is for kidnapping Aaron," snarled Maddy.

Then she kissed his blistered cheek, and hugged him.

_"__That_ is for saving him, and switching to our side," she smiled.

Taylor gave Steven an intimidating look and gritted his teeth in anger, "I should pistol whip you, Steven, cover you in Trike oil, and stake you to the ground for the next hungry T. Rex."

"I'd rather you didn't, Commander," begged Rebecca.

He snapped at Rebecca, "And why shouldn't I throw you out there with him? You _collaborated."_

"I didn't know until the last moment that he was really working for Mira. I knew he couldn't do what Mira asked."

"Rebecca kinda convinced me of the error of my ways."

"You could have told us."

"I was afraid of Mira. There was no time. We had a Sixer 'escort' in the colony that would make sure I kidnapped Aaron or he would. I decided it would be better if I did," Steven explained nervously.

Taylor railed, _"Another_ spy in Terra Nova? I must be losing my grip here. We're grateful that you changed, Steven. There are still consequences of what you did – or almost did - son."

"I am prepared for any punishment, Commander," he stood stiffly, ready for whatever was coming.

"Very well, Steven. You give me no choice. I sentence to you to hard work tilling the land as your permanent job here, teaching others your obvious talent, and to be happy the rest of your life with this young woman you obvious love."

Taylor glanced at Maddy and Mark and her parents, who nodded their agreement with Taylor to forgive Steven and his quick thinking to save Aaron from real harm. Rebecca blushed about as deeply as she could.

"I am very grateful, Commander… " smiled Steven. Rebecca squeezed his hand.

Taylor raised an eyebrow, "But? There's a 'but' there."

"Sir. I'd be even more grateful if Dr. Shannon would dig this bio-implant radio out of my ear, please. I am very tired of having Mira in my head."

Elisabeth perked up, realizing the wealth of data that would provide on 2149's new bio-electronics which might save them another day, shot a glance to Taylor, and agreed, "Gladly, Steven. Come with me."

Taylor turned his attention to the Travelers, who were being unbound, and were being prepared to be returned to their respective times. He watched as Captain Becket called the other Travelers from their hiding places in the jungle. They were entering the colony, weaponless, to assemble by groups, and be returned to their own time. Becket was true to his word, but the Terra Nova security forces were cautious. The assembled Travelers were a very large group, and it astonished Jim Shannon that so many people had been drawn through the Bermuda Triangle over the centuries, and how many survived for decades against the dinosaurs and diseases of this world with little more than sticks and knifes. Taylor realized that had the battle raged on much longer, they would have been overrun by sheer numbers. They were all very capable fighters – every man, woman, and child.

The multitude was quiet, standing all together. Becket directed his people's attention to Commodore Taylor.

"Welcome Travelers - to Terra Nova. I am 'Commodore' Taylor. As you may have learned from Captain Becket, we are not your enemies. In fact, we can help you in a way you would not ever dream. Some may consider it 'magic'. We can send you back to your time and loved ones."

A collective gasp flowed across the crowd of Travelers, who were resigned to being lost and to die on an ancient alternate Earth forever, most separated from anyone they ever loved.

Taylor spoke deliberately, "Chief of Police Shannon and his friends and family will help you get home. You just tell him where you want to back to. And more importantly. _When."_

One by one the respective groups that had been drawn across the natural time machine of the Bermuda Triangle into the Badlands assembled together, and were prepared for travel back their homes and times. The groups were all shapes and sizes, and all six vests were used by the Terra Novan time travelers to get them home – sometimes one vest, and for the airliner and cruise ship survivors, all the vests connected with the TimeWire connection.

…

As the shimmer of Steven, Jim Shannon, and Mark Reynolds faded behind him, Captain Becket and his crew stood on the shores of Hispaniola overlooking a bay full of tall-masted ships. "Ahh! Bounty like I like it," he said as he rubbed his palms in anticipation, "Now _this_ is paradise, gentlemen. The girls are full-bosomed and have nuthin' under their skirts and no brains like those Terra Novan women."

"And no sass," yelled his First Mate.

Becket's crew cheered and eagerly headed for a night on the town.

…..

The group of Black Americans whose grim and over-crowded human cargo transport ship disappeared from the world in the 1700's found themselves outside their village in what someday would be Botswana. Shocked loved ones rushed to embrace what the slave traders had kidnapped from them just six months before in their time.

…..

Merely hours after their return, in a dimly lit conference room, a senior naval officer talked sternly, "Pilots of Squadron 8: thank you for your thorough debrief of how you disappeared over the Sargasso Sea and lived in an alternate Earth full of dinosaurs for decades, and the same natural phenomenon just brought you back. I _order _you never to say a word of this to anyone, including your families, understood? As far as they know, you've only been gone nine months."

"Are you _sure_ you didn't see anyone else there?" he grilled.

"No sir, it was just us the whole time," answered the squadron's commander, with his comrades nervously tight-lipped at their agreement to protect the existence of the Terra Novans to prevent changing history.

The Admiral watched the squadron members all file out of the room, as they headed to the base hospital to be checked out before going to their homes. He kept to himself that something was missing from the brave squadron commander's story, but knew, to protect his men, he would never say. The Admiral walked down the hall, and locked his office door behind him. He picked up a red phone to his superior officer, and spoke in a soft voice, "Sir. Admiral Becket here. I need to talk to Area 51. Right away."

….

Thirty five survivors of the crashed 747 crew and passengers flashed into existence in the year 2022 in the lobby of Miami International Airport, to the surprised looks of hundreds of curious tourists and security. They were surrounded. At gunpoint.

"Do want to explain yourselves?" asked the TSA guard, who failed to see Shannon, Rebecca, Corporal Sharpe, and Mark initiate their return trip back through time.

"We're Flight 731."

"You've been missing for over a year. That plane was lost over the Sargasso Sea."

"Better late than never," grinned Flight 731's First Officer to the guard.

…..

The sixty-three tourists who managed to live through the cruise ship's disappearance and wreck into the Badlands stood on the empty dock of the cruise liner in 2015.

The Head Cruise Director looked out of her window, and seeing them, walked out on the dock, "Uh… who are you? You aren't supposed to be here inside the gate."

The cruise liner's Pursar said, "We're Cruise 2015 –L."

"Well that ship has been missing a month. Lost at sea, we're afraid. I'm sorry, I may have misunderstood you. Are you the families?"

"No. We're the survivors."

As the Cruise Director fainted, she heard an older gray-haired retiree complain, "Which is why we want our dang _money_ back!"

They nearly stomped over the limp Cruise Director as they rushed past her to the terminal, most to kiss the ground. Others ran to the main office to get a refund.

…..

All but one of the other groups of reluctant time travelers were all safely returned as well. Taylor stood before the final group of Travelers, the ones exiled the longest time. It was the dozen native Americans from the 1490s who had ventured too far from shore in war canoes blown off course by a hurricane.

"How may I help you to get back?"

The man who was a deputy Chief of the tribe bowed, and spoke in decent English, "Honored Chief Taylor, we wish to stay."

"Why?"

"Because we can live in this world, like you do. You are not like the Sixers. They do not honor the land, or other tribes like you."

"This place is a lot rougher than the Caribbean," cautioned Taylor.

"We can live in peace with the Thunder Beasts. The Great Spirit will help us. Intruders are defiling our land and our people in our time. We will be safer here. You honor life. We can see it. We will live in peace around you, and if you need us, we are here for you, brothers."

They grasped forearms in the warriors' way of fraternal friendship, and departed. Taylor admired their courage. He convinced them to take an emergency radio if they were ever in trouble, and to get medicines.

Aside from the few Travelers who wished to remain with the Sixers 'for a better life' and even several who wanted to join the Terra Novans, it was over.

Jim Shannon and Mark flashed back beside Taylor after returning the next to last group, saluted, and joked, "Shannon and Reynolds 'Time Traveler Delivery Service', sir, are at your service."

"I think we're done, here, gentlemen," smiled Taylor.

"Really? I thought…" Jim stammered.

"I'll explain, Dad. You'll like this story," grinned Maddy.

…

At home that night at the Shannons, Mark, Maddy, and Aaron joined her parents for a hearty dinner, "Well, that was a nice stroll through history," Mark reflected.

Jim joked, "Well if you liked the era of slave trading, the pirate scourge, World War II, Viet Nam, and the Cold War, it was a great time to be alive!"

So began an uneasy truce. The Sixers, Phoenix Group, with help from Terra Nova, built their permanent home. It was smaller, more Spartan, but it was a Terra Nova clone. The only thing missing was their ability to communicate with any place but Terra Nova. That was another of Taylor's deals – no possible contact with 2149. It was not worth a fight. Mira figured that if her friends in the future wanted to contact her, they'd figure a way. But it was the real home she sought, with a real electric fence against the monsters of the night, the ability to grow food, and to hunt for food without being the hunted all the time. They got all the Meds they needed. They were far enough away from the Terra Novans to feel like they were not in a prison their own.

And most importantly, Mira had Sienna, and so the Sixer leader's demeanor was largely changed toward Taylor and Shannon, at least for a little while. Sienna was older, but had not changed much. She was in fact just as headstrong as her mother as Shannon had joked. Her dream of being free and reunited with her mother prevented her from being corrupted by the powerful conspirators of 2149, whom she hated. After many nights of tearful confessions by Sienna, it wasn't long before Mira hated what they tried unsuccessfully to do to her daughter.

But that peace wouldn't last long. And Mira would face a hard decision again about her relations with Terra Nova and with Taylor and Shannon.

…

The thugs who had held Sienna for so long were done debriefing the 'boss'. He sat back in his seat, disappointed, but was amazed at the story of Sienna's time travel rescue via a personal time travel device.

He made his pronouncement to the hostage takers,"From what you said, it seems Mira and Shannon got all 'friendly' in the past five years. Well, there are _consequences_ of that. We'll have to include the Sixers in our own little plan for Terra Nova – if we ever get past that blasted chrono-barrier they put up. You guys are dismissed, and thanks for looking after Mira's brat."

As Sienna's abductors left, patting themselves on their backs for their patience with the snotty and moody pre-teen, the boss turned to his security chief, and ordered, "No witnesses, no stories."

"Understood," the huge man said as he left and unsheathed his weapon.

…

Steven never wanted any role other than to work the gardens, something never possible in 2149, and he took Rebecca's hand in marriage, to her delighted acceptance. He did in fact have a 'green thumb', and greatly expanded the productivity of fields and plants and developed hybrid varieties, providing enough food to allow the colony to expand naturally. He soon became the Terra Nova Chief Botanist, and through Rebecca, there were eventually three children by their side. He taught his little friend Aaron how to farm too, with the smiles and approval of his good friends Mark and Maddy.


End file.
